


Kindred 8: The Jock

by torturingtaylor (itzaimster)



Series: Kindred Series [8]
Category: Hanson
Genre: Brothers, Clones, Conspiracy, Gen, Genetics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-26
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 05:34:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 22,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9307655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itzaimster/pseuds/torturingtaylor
Summary: Most of the clones are sent home, but Alex is given an interesting proposition. Mark opts to return to LA to stay with Carey. Emma gives Carey an ultimatum. A few cases of mistaken identity take place.





	1. Chapter 1

“So where are we going?” Carey’s eyes were on Morris, his knuckles white as he held the harness as tight as he could, “what deal did you make with them?”  
Morris shared a glance with Jesse.  
“We will take everyone except Keandre back to Dallas,” his voice rose over the noise from the cargo plane, “he will separate when we get to London, then we will be on our way home.”  
“And what happens when we get there?” Mark was staring at him.  
Taylor looked over to where Keandre sat, listening intently since hearing his name. Taylor knew all of his luggage/personal things would still be in Tulsa.  
“We will see about getting each of you home,” Morris insisted with a straight face, “at least, those of you we are able to send home.”  
“And what does that mean?” Taylor demanded.  
“He’s talking about me,” Jesse countered, “part of the deal to get me back into the country is that I hand myself over to the authorities.”  
“You did this,” Taylor remembered, not knowing why he was surprised, “…how?”  
“I called in a favor,” Jesse made it obvious he wouldn’t explain further.  
“With _these_ guys?” Mark demanded.  
“No,” Jesse looked him in the eye.  
“We were contacted shortly after Jesse’s call,” Morris explained, “and given the honor of retrieving you.”  
Mark scoffed at that.  
“But for what purpose?” Carey’s eyes narrowed, “just to be your lab rats instead of theirs?”  
“No, to send you home,” Morris corrected calmly.  
“Why? What’s the point of that?”  
“Because we’re the property of the US government,” Jesse explained for him, not bothering to skirt around it, “and they want to keep their acquisitions on home soil.”  
“Except for Keandre,” Carey countered, nodding toward the Frenchman.  
“Keandre remains under watch, and eventually he will undergo similar testing as to what the rest of you have already been through,” Morris assured.  
Keandre frowned at that.  
“What’s the point in sending him home if you’re just going to abduct him again?” Taylor’s eyes narrowed as well.  
“It’s not technically abduction,” Damien defended, “it’s reclamation.”  
“Fuck that,” Mark scorned as Carey began to protest.  
“Being taken against our will is abduction whether you see it that way or not,” he spat, “being attacked and thrown in the back of a van while out for a jog is _not_ a formal fucking invitation. Being drugged, being analysed, being left unconscious in a nearby alley where anything could happen? You might as well have been aliens to us!”  
“I was taken from the alley behind work the first time,” Taylor agreed.  
“And I’m still mad as hell about being knocked unconscious straight up,” Jesse agreed.  
“I was taken at gunpoint,” Mark weighed in.  
Damien smirked and the twins both glared in his direction.  
“The intention was never to cause you harm, or to make you hate or fear us,” Morris attempted to dispel, “we just had to do our jobs.”  
“Then why is fuck-face here smirking?” Mark demanded, getting a glare from Damien.  
“And why did you come after my kids?” Taylor demanded, “you didn’t just try and talk me into it, you literally got me out of the way so that you could hunt them down. And you want us to _trust_ you?”  
His brow furrowed incredulously.  
“It’s never gonna happen! We’ll be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives thanks to you. My _kids_ will be living in fear, thanks to you.”  
“I never wanted that,” Morris insisted.  
“Well you got it,” Taylor scorned.  
“But you did make our jobs very, very hard,” Morris quickly went on, “and we had to account for that.”  
“So Carey walking down the street made your job hard,” Mark’s tone was similar to Taylor’s, “me trying to work on my bike was making your job hard.”  
“I was speaking of Taylor and his family specifically,” Morris amended, “how you were first brought to us was Damien’s idea.”  
“Oh what,” Damien scowled at being thrown under the bus as all eyes suddenly went to him.  
“ _Your_ idea?!” Carey’s voice rose.  
“I don’t have to put up with this,” Damien shook his head, “I shouldn’t even be here. How did they get into the lab in the first place?!”  
“What, like it’s well guarded?” Mark smirked.  
“We did believe it was Jesse mounting an attack at first,” Morris admitted, not looking in his direction, “we didn’t even think that they might have been after you.”  
“Thanks,” Damien scoffed, turning away.  
“You had to know where we were,” Mark set his eyes on Morris instead, “I still have a tracer.”  
“We did,” Morris agreed with a nod.  
“Then why didn’t you come for us?” Carey shrugged, “was this a game to you?”  
“Of course not,” Morris began to undo his harness, “but relations between us and the Russians have never been steady, and you were taken without our consent. We’d barely managed any formal communication with them before Jesse’s word came through and broke the barrier, so to speak.”  
Everyone bar Damien, Jesse and Keandre were suddenly on edge when Morris stood from his seat and made his way toward the twins. He stooped in front of Mark a little as he attempted to study his face.  
“This is new,” he said after some time.  
“Not to me it isn’t,” Mark countered, “it took forever.”  
“And wasn’t by choice,” Carey added.  
“Remarkable,” Morris was appreciating their work, “and yet they decided to leave your tattoos.”  
“They didn’t have time to screw with them,” Mark glared at him, already annoyed at being singled out, “but they were going to.”  
“Fascinating. We’ll need to update your profile photography before you leave us for… Chicago I presume.”  
He returned to his seat.  
“I don’t think I want to go back,” Mark lowered his voice, looking to Carey.  
“I don’t blame you,” he assured, “but my stuff is still in your apartment, so I have to go there anyway.”  
“I thought you’d want to go straight to LA? For, you know…”  
“I don’t know how much time I have,” Carey frowned when he realised before beginning to panic again, “what if I’m too late?! What if it’s happening right now?!”  
“If you’re talking about the birth of your daughter, I’m afraid you missed it,” Morris was redoing his harness.  
“What?” Carey demanded scornfully, “what are you talking about?”  
“We knew she was pregnant,” Damien insisted.  
“But we haven’t been gone that long!” Carey’s voice rose, “did something go wrong?!”  
“Nothing went wrong,” Morris assured, “she was carried to term and born just over a week ago.”  
“But that means-“  
“We’ve been gone for two months,” Mark finished for him with a frown.  
“Two months?!” Taylor’s brow furrowed.  
Natalie had to be beside herself by now. Especially under the circumstances in which they’d been taken.  
“What did you do?” Carey demanded, “why do you know all this?”  
“We’ve been keeping a careful eye on her progress. She’s been doing very well,” Morris continued, “we had one of our doctors oversee the delivery without her knowledge and some quick tests were done within the first few days. She is very healthy. They both are.”  
Carey’s eyes closed at that, trying to imagine Emma having to give birth all alone. Not even Mark had been there.  
“Hey,” they opened again when Mark put a hand on his lap, “it’s okay. You’ll see her soon.”  
Carey took a deep breath and tried not to panic further.  
“If you were watching them,” Taylor really didn’t want to ask, but he had to, “what about mine?”  
“They are fine,” Morris assured, “they were notified as soon as we were able to retrieve you.”  
“Did you tell Emma?” Carey jumped in.  
“No,” Morris shook his head.  
“Why not?!”  
“Let’s just deal with it when we get back, okay? She’s going to have enough going on,” Mark insisted.  
“This isn’t fair! Why are we getting the raw end of this deal?!” Carey scowled.  
“You think you’re getting the raw deal?” Taylor’s brow rose.  
“Stop it,” Jesse’s voice suddenly dominated the conversation, “none of this will change anything, and I am not going to sit through a pointless argument. Vent your anger when we’re on the ground.”  
Carey immediately sobered at the reminder that he was in a plane. Taylor paused before leaning back into his seat.  
“I am going home?” Keandre’s voice broke the awkward silence that followed.  
“Yes Keandre,” Morris replied, “we are taking you home.”  
Keandre’s expression was hard to read. Remembering what had happened in the Russian labs, Mark was now watching him with interest.

The flight to London took just over four hours. The other clones weren’t even allowed off the plane for a break. Keandre was escorted off with a quick wave in Taylor’s direction, and the plane sat on the runway for at least another hour.  
After many complaints, particularly from Carey as he just wanted to get the flight home over with, they realised they were waiting for a delivery. Not only food was brought on board, but clothes and blankets as well.  
“Oh thank god. I’m sick of wearing this dress,” Mark took whatever had been on top of the pile and stood aside to get dressed.  
Taylor approached it next and took his time to sift through for something suitable. After waiting impatiently, Carey just found something comfortable. Jesse offered Alex a choice of what was left before throwing Damien what he didn’t want.  
“The flight to Dallas will take about ten and a half hours,” Morris informed them, “I suggest you all try and get some sleep after we’ve eaten.”  
“Very funny,” Carey muttered.  
“I don’t know about you,” Mark turned to him, scratching at his beard, “but I’m looking forward to anything that isn’t potato. It could be Brussel sprouts for all I care.”  
“I’m sure you’ve been through enough, we don’t need to subject you to anything further,” Morris walked over to the twins.  
“Was that a joke?” Mark was confused.  
“What’s that?” Carey was eyeing a plastic bag in his hand.  
“We recovered some personal items from the research center where you were held, I thought you’d like this back.”  
Carey took the bag once he’d held it out, soon realising it held his wedding ring. As Morris walked toward Taylor with the next bag he struggled to break the seal as fast as he could and study the gold band to make sure that it was actually his.  
“Lucky break,” Mark considered.  
Once Carey found the engraving inside with his wife’s name and birthdate, he had to wipe at his eyes.  
“Yeah,” he agreed, quickly slipping it back on.  
Taylor had been watching and his right hand had gone to his own as if to make sure it was still there. He remembered them trying to take it and realised Carey hadn’t been so lucky with his wedding being so recent. Morris handed him back his necklaces without a word before walking away.  
Jesse was just trying to focus on Alex instead. He’d been quiet for the whole trip and he knew he wouldn’t be able to protect him once they landed in Dallas. If Morris was lying about his intentions for Alex, they wouldn’t find out until it was too late. After Morris handed Alex a new basic-looking pair of glasses he decided to try and engage again.  
“What are you thinking about?” Jesse asked him as they took their seats next to each other again.  
“Nothing,” Alex replied, surprised at being asked, “why?”  
“I mean you’re not yourself, we can tell,” Jesse insisted, “and I know there’s reasons but…”  
“I just have nothing to say,” Alex shrugged, redoing the harness.  
“What will you do when you get home?” Jesse asked.  
“I don’t know if I want to go home,” Alex admitted, “that’s if I get a choice.”  
Jesse didn’t have a response to that. It was exactly what he’d been afraid of, after all.  
Once they were all strapped in again Morris gave the okay for them to take off. After sitting on the runway for nearly another half hour while waiting for their turn, the long flight back to Dallas began. After another long and awkward silence, Damien was the first to speak up.  
“Why don’t we make deals right here and now with them?” he was talking to Morris, “when it comes to surveillance and reporting. We need to keep track of Taylor and Carey’s kids.”  
“Excuse me?” Taylor’s brow rose as Carey scowled.  
“And why?” Carey demanded, “what business is it of yours anyway? Our family has nothing to do with your science shit.”  
“Incorrect,” Morris considered, “as your DNA belongs to the program and its founders, anything – or anyone – it is passed to also falls under our jurisdiction.”  
“You don’t own my kids,” Taylor’s voice lowered in warning, “you have enough from them already.”  
“Not true. We were interrupted,” Morris corrected, giving Jesse a glance, “we will need further genetic material from them, particularly a few years into the future.”  
“What are you saying?” Carey demanded, “you can’t lay claim to our kids! We have our own lives to live. For that matter, _we_ …”  
He indicated all of them.  
“ _All_ have our own lives. You need to let us live them!”  
“We need to do nothing of the sort,” Damien smirked.  
“Stay out of this,” Mark warned him, despite sitting on the other side of Carey.  
“I’m suggesting we come to some kind of agreement where this doesn’t have to interrupt your perfect little lives, is that such a bad thing?” Damien scorned.  
“What do you want?” Taylor demanded outright, “why in a few years? What’s your goal?”  
“Our goal is to study how the modifications to Isaac’s genetic coding have passed down,” Morris explained openly, “we want to know if your children can reproduce, for example, or if the changes we somehow failed to make with the two of you will be passed onto them instead.”  
“But how can you tell?” Carey was confused, while Taylor was doing the math in his head.  
“You want to wait until they hit puberty,” he realised, “I don’t think I like where this is going.”  
Carey’s eyes shot to him as he caught on.  
“I don’t want my girls subjected to that,” Taylor shook his head, “they’re only kids, and they don’t know what’s going on.”  
“Then you have some time to teach them before they’re needed,” Morris insisted.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn’t until after they’d landed in Dallas that they realised just how covert an operation this had been. Morris had no intention of taking them back to the labs and had already organised flights for them while in transit, but getting them to those flights presented a new problem.  
They couldn’t all enter the airport together.  
Taylor’s flight was first so they were preparing to move him first, but before the doors ever opened one of the handlers with them was instructed to put Jesse in cuffs. Knowing it had been coming, he didn’t resist. Though it put the rest of them on edge.  
Taylor was escorted from the plane and into the terminal by one of the handlers before being stopped at one of the doors. Looking over his shoulder to wonder why, he felt a sudden sting in the back of his neck and ducked away from the handler in time to see him replacing the injector in his coat. He felt a chill run down his spine when he realised he’d just been tagged again – the same way that Mark had back in Nevada. Before he could say anything he was given his boarding pass and some cash and sent on his way. The first thing he did was try to find a phone so he could call Natalie, and once he had he found he had to go and buy something to get some change for it.  
Carey’s flight was next, heading for Chicago. They had he and Mark on similarly timed flights but on different airlines just to be sure they weren’t seen together. After an awkward ‘see you in Chicago’ Carey was also escorted from the plane. He was also given a tracer while he was distracted by one of the departure boards.  
“You’re next,” Morris gave Mark a pat on the shoulder.  
“No.”  
Everyone looked up in surprise.  
“Sorry?” Morris frowned.  
“Let Alex go first,” Mark’s arms were folded, “it doesn’t matter what time his flight is, take him to the terminal first.”  
“That’s illogical,” Damien scorned as Jesse caught on, “his flight doesn’t leave for another three hours. Yours leaves in less than two.”  
“Then you’d better make up your minds fast,” Mark looked him in the eye.  
“I don’t know that I want to go back to Miami,” Alex spoke up, still standing behind Jesse.  
Somehow even with his hands cuffed he still felt like a force to be reckoned with.  
“What do you mean?” Mark demanded, “you have to!”  
“I’ve got nothing there,” Alex shrugged, his voice cracking slightly, “Mom’s gone, and I can’t…”  
He trailed off, unsure of what to even say.  
“Alex this isn’t the time,” Jesse spoke softly, looking over his shoulder, “just go home and find your feet. It won’t be as hard as you think. I promise you.”  
“Maybe I should go with him,” Mark suggested, his eyes on Jesse as if they had to decide.  
“No he needs to do this himself,” Jesse insisted, “and you need to go with your brother.”  
“He could come with me instead.”  
All eyes went to Damien. He was studying Alex, before looking to Morris.  
“What if he came back to the lab? You wouldn’t have to track him, and he could help me.”  
“That’s not gonna happen,” Mark scowled, “the agreement was you let him go.”  
“He walks out a free man or we’ve got a problem,” Jesse said straight.  
“He wouldn’t be a prisoner,” Damien realised they didn’t get it, “I want him to stay with me. Work _with_ me. I know you’re good with computers.”  
Alex blanched as Damien directed the conversation to him.  
“You could help with my work in the lab.”  
“He wouldn’t have authorisation,” Morris spoke down to him, “he couldn’t work on any of the upper levels.”  
“Which is why I said he could stay with me. I’ll keep him out of the way, I swear.”  
“Why would you want me there?” Alex frowned, confused.  
“It doesn’t matter cos it ain’t gonna happen!” Mark’s voice rose.  
Morris took hold of the back of Damien’s neck and pulled him aside to talk privately.  
“Why would he want that?” Alex was starting to fret, “what do they want with me?!”  
“Calm down,” Mark stepped over to him, “they aren’t taking you.”  
“Maybe we should think about this,” Jesse lowered his voice.  
“What?!” Mark scorned.  
“What if we had a man on the inside?” Jesse looked him in the eye, “if they can watch him they’re not gonna kill him. He could access their mainframes without needing to break in.”  
“It sounds dangerous,” Alex was shaking his head.  
“It sounds reckless,” Mark agreed, “what if you’re wrong? What if it’s a trick?”  
“I don’t think it is,” Jesse’s eyes went to where Damien was arguing with Morris, “I think he’s just lonely.”  
“’Lonely’? Cry me a fucking river. You _hate_ this guy, and don’t tell me you don’t,” Mark pointed a finger at him, “now you want us to trust him? You want Alex to trust him?”  
“Not at all,” Jesse corrected, “this is tactical. This is the first time one of us has been invited in, not dragged in wearing a hood.”  
Mark looked back to where the two were talking.  
“You’re talking about this as if I could actually do it,” Alex was shaking his head, “I can’t do like you guys, I can’t just pretend.”  
“Don’t,” Jesse frowned, “you’re naturally curious. Find out what they do, how they tick. Find out what computer programs they use. Just do what you do. Be natural.”  
“If they let him,” Mark was sizing up Morris.  
His body language showed he wasn’t happy with Damien’s offer, but his tone sounded like he was coming around.  
“I don’t like it,” Alex hugged himself, starting to feel sick.  
“This is your choice, okay?” Jesse was sincere, “you either go out there and get on a plane, on your own, and go back to Miami… _or_ you come with me back to the lab and you’ve got Damien with you the whole way.”  
“I don’t see how that’s an incentive,” Mark muttered.  
“You’re going too?” Alex double checked, unsure that he’d heard him right.  
“Eventually,” Jesse somewhat corrected, “I gotta go with the cops first just to deal with the whole ‘wanted’ thing, but I’m sure Morris is gonna have me back there the second he can get his claws back in me.”  
“Can’t you call someone? Like you did before?” Alex’s brow furrowed.  
“I already did, and this is the price I have to pay for that,” he insisted, “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”  
“More worried about him right now,” Mark took a step back as Damien and Morris ended their talk and came back to the trio.  
“After a quick discussion we’ve decided to allow Alex to join us, if he so wishes,” Morris gave them a nod, “but once we get back to the institute we will need confirmation from our superiors. For now you can stay with Damien in his quarters.”  
“How long until I get back to the labs?” Jesse asked.  
“I’m unsure,” Morris answered honestly, “but if Alex is still there I will of course let you see each other, under guard.”  
“Can he stay in contact with us?” Mark squinted.  
“Nothing would please me more,” Morris assured, “if he stays in contact with you, it means you remain in contact with us.”  
“It’s win-win,” Damien tried to reassure.  
“It’s up to you,” Jesse turned back to Alex, “what do you want to do?”  
“Nothing,” Alex admitted, obviously stressed.  
“But you gotta choose,” Mark shrugged, “we can’t choose for you.”  
Alex took a few deep breaths, wincing as he pro’d and con’d in his head.  
“I want to stay with Jesse,” he said when he opened his eyes again, “if he’s going to the lab… then I want to go to the lab.”  
Damien’s eyes lit up but he stayed quiet.  
“Mark,” Morris indicated the handler that was waiting for him.  
“Good luck,” Mark raised his brow before he turned to leave.  
He was rushed through to the terminal and handed his boarding pass while being pointed in the right direction. He made it to the gate with five minutes to spare.  
“Jesse,” Morris indicated the door.  
“Stay calm, okay?” he quickly said his goodbyes to Alex, “just listen to Damien and stick with him. If anything goes wrong you let me know the moment I get there.”  
“Okay,” Alex nodded, already anxious at being left behind.  
“Just keep busy and I’ll be there before you know it,” he insisted as a handler came to grab his arm.  
“Okay.”  
Jesse let himself be pulled toward the door and helped down to the tarmac. A police cruiser was waiting, lights flashing in preparation to drive away. Morris watched from the plane as one of the handlers gave the waiting officer a form to sign, and once it was done he handed Jesse over. Jesse took one last look up at the plane before the officer held his head and helped him into the back. The officers introduced themselves before they drove away but he wasn’t listening. He was too worried about Alex.  
Damien had awkwardly made his way to Alex’s side, putting his hand on the other clone’s shoulder in an attempt to calm him. They watched the lights disappear before waiting a while longer for their ride. Alex’s stomach fell when he realised it was one of the ominous white vans, and found it odd when he was helped into the back with Damien instead of being forced inside for the first time. The ride was in awkward silence but once they were out of the airport it was quick. Damien kept Alex by his side as they entered through a service dock and made their way through to his personal quarters. Morris followed them. Damien instantly began ordering some staff to set up another bed in what was almost a tiny apartment, complete with a living area, ensuite and a small bedroom separated by a curtain. Alex only noticed the lack of windows because Damien apologised for it. When queried he explained that all his food and laundry was done by the institute.  
Alex was already eyeing the laptop in the room, wondering if he’d get some time alone with it.


	3. Chapter 3

Zac was pacing anxiously as the flight emptied. There’d been no sign of Taylor and he was sure the line was coming to an end. When he finally saw him in the distance he breathed a sigh of relief.  
“Hey,” Taylor greeted, “thanks for picking me up.”  
“No problem,” Zac was looking him up and down, “Ike’s in the car, he wasn’t sure if you’d be alone or not.”  
“I’m as surprised as you are that I’m not,” Taylor shrugged as Zac led the way out.  
He didn’t say anything else until they’d made it to the car. Seeing that Isaac was sitting in the back, Taylor got into the front.  
“So what happened?” were the first words out of his mouth once Zac had closed his door, “anything we need to know about?”  
“I don’t think so,” Taylor frowned, “it wasn’t Morris.”  
“But Morris is the one who called Nat,” Zac pointed out as he reversed the truck, “or someone who works for him at least. He had to have something to do with it.”  
“Right,” Isaac agreed.  
“He’s the only reason I’m back,” Taylor shrugged, “well, between he and Jesse.”  
“So he’s the good guy now?” Isaac frowned.  
“Of course not,” Taylor returned the look, “it’s just more complicated now.”  
Zac sighed at that.  
“Just what we want to hear,” Isaac mused to himself.  
“Where were you? Do you know?” Zac asked.  
“Russia.”  
“Russia?” Isaac’s brow rose, “why would they take you to Russia?”  
“They were Russian?” Taylor shrugged, “it was some government conspiracy thing – they found out about us somehow and wanted to use us for something. I don’t know if anyone else found out what for, but I didn’t.”  
“Crazy,” Isaac shook his head.  
“What about the Jesse thing? Know any more about that?” Zac asked.  
“He’d be with the cops by now,” Taylor’s eyes lowered, “it was part of the deal for bringing us back. Something to do with international relations and their jurisdiction or some other bullshit.”  
“And the rest of them?”  
“Scattered. We all got sent home,” Taylor shrugged.  
“When we realised you guys were gone I went looking for Keandre,” Isaac revealed, “I managed to save the things from his room and check him out officially. Did they send him back to France?”  
“Yeah they did,” Taylor nodded.  
“Might have to send it on to him,” Zac glanced at Isaac in the mirror.  
“I wouldn’t know how,” Isaac shrugged, “I’ve got his phone, it was the only way I had to contact him.”  
“We’ll just have to wait for him to contact us then,” Taylor decided.  
Isaac nodded before finally sitting back in the seat.

Carey waited just as anxiously for Mark’s flight to land, and once they were reunited took a cab back to the apartment. Carey stayed with the cab while Mark went to fetch the money that had remained hidden in the locker to pay the driver before they cautiously made their way inside. Mark was able to distract Ronaldo as Carey ducked into the elevator behind him and hid. It was a close call, but it had been all they could think of. They couldn’t get in through the garage without Mark’s pass.  
The first thing Carey did was race for where he’d left his cell phone on the counter. As he’d guessed the battery was well and truly dead, so he went for his bag to find the charger.  
Mark was looking around at the mess and groaning internally at having to clean it up. His blood was still on the floor and all.  
“Shit!” Carey cussed.  
“What?” Mark turned to look.  
“I forgot my fucking charger,” Carey dropped the bag, “if I can’t charge the phone I can’t get Emma’s number.”  
“I can call her,” Mark shrugged.  
“No I made her get a new number, remember?” Carey rubbed his face.  
He stooped to snatch the bag up again.  
“Fuck it I’ll just go back to the airport and catch the first flight.”  
“Here,” Mark reached into his pocket to pull out the rest of the money, “you’ll need cash.”  
“Thanks,” Carey took it, “can you call me a cab?”  
Mark moved over to the touch screen on the wall. After sifting through the menu he ordered a cab with a simple flick of his finger.  
“What are you going to do?” Carey asked him, “are you coming with?”  
Mark sighed as he looked around again.  
“Now that I’m here I might as well pack a bit,” he shrugged, “I might follow you tomorrow, or in a couple of days.”  
“Be careful,” Carey insisted, “we don’t know what you might have missed, and Colin not being here is what got you in this mess in the first place.”  
“I remember,” Mark assured.  
Carey went to press the button for the elevator. Mark just watched from the kitchen.  
“Say hi to everyone for me,” he mused.  
“I will,” Carey promised, “I’ll call you once I get my phone working.”  
“Don’t bother,” Mark insisted, “focus on the girls first.”  
Carey’s heart jumped again at the use of the plural. But the elevator arrived and he ducked inside.  
“See you in a couple days!” he called back.  
Mark didn’t respond as the doors closed. He pulled one of the bar stools aside and took a seat, debating if he was awake enough to make it to the bedroom or if he should just collapse over the counter instead.

Once Carey had his flight sorted and had headed to the gate, he checked the time and found he had about ten minutes before boarding even started. Moving over to a nearby shop window he set his bag down to wait before catching sight of his reflection.  
His hand went to his head where his hair was still growing back. It was just less than two inches long, but he knew it wasn’t enough. Spotting a clothing store behind him he grabbed his bag again and headed for it. He had a quick look through the hat section before settling on a woollen beanie.  
The flight felt longer than the one from London, but he was on his own this time. He spent most of it with his eyes closed and his hands clenching the arm rests trying to remember everything Mark had been working to calm him with. When it finally landed he was one of the first out the door.  
In his rush through the airport he stopped only to buy some flowers before rushing out to find a cab. It took most of what he had left from Mark to pay for the ride out to the house. He was nervously rubbing the back of his neck for most of the ride, knowing the scientists were going to find their new house. But the pull to see Emma was too great. He’d figure out Plan B later. He paid the driver as soon as they pulled up and quickly ducked out and up to the front door. He hesitated before using his keys and rang the doorbell instead.  
He stepped to the side to quickly check his reflection in the window and make sure his hair was tucked well under the beanie, before making sure he was standing with the flowers in full view as he heard the door unlock. He felt his heart jump into his throat before realising it was Rachel behind it.  
“Oh… oh my…” her eyes widened.  
“Is she here?” his brow furrowed, trying to look past her.  
“Wait one second,” Rachel held up a finger before closing the door on him.  
He paused, taken aback. But he prepared himself in case Emma opened the door the second time. When it did open and Rachel appeared again with her handbag, he frowned.  
“What’s going on?” he asked.  
She paused, putting a hand on his chest.  
“I’m not going to be here for this,” she insisted, “she’s in the kitchen making lunch. Good luck.”  
She smiled and gave his chest a pat before heading down to the driveway. Carey realised the car he hadn’t recognised must have been hers. He watched her leave before cautiously going through the door and quietly closing it behind him.  
He could hear her in the kitchen and he instantly felt a lump in his throat. He was already hoping he’d be able to talk when he found her. But knowing he had to get it over with, he headed straight there.  
She heard the footsteps.  
“Good you’re back – can you quickly check on Ellie? I thought I heard her waking u-“  
She cut herself off when she stood from checking the oven and saw who was actually standing on the other side of the counter. A terrifying moment of silence followed.  
“Her name is Ellie?” Carey’s voice broke.  
Tears sprang to Emma’s eyes and she darted around the counter. Carey quickly threw the flowers there before pulling her into his arms and hugging her for all he was worth.  
“Em I’m so sorry,” his eyes closed as he held her.  
“Shut up I don’t care.”  
He took deep breaths as he waited until she was ready. When she finally pulled back she was wiping her eyes and looking like she was fighting the urge to slap him.  
“Where were you?!” she demanded, “where were both of you?!”  
“Russia?” his brow furrowed.  
“ _Russia_?!”  
“They jumped us in Mark’s apartment. They flew us to Russia. I’ve been in a cell for two months and I didn’t even know how much time had passed and I am _so_ so sorry-“  
“Shush!” she insisted before he could babble further, “is Mark okay?”  
“He’s fine,” Carey assured, “he’s in Chicago but he’ll be here either tomorrow or the next day. He’s moving home.”  
“I’m glad to hear it,” she was giving him an odd look.  
He paused, afraid to ask, before she reached up to the beanie. He held his breath as she carefully pulled it away.  
“Care what happened?” she asked, her tone full of worry.  
“It’s a long story,” his eyes lowered, “but we’re all okay, we’re all out, and… we’ll deal with it. Just like everything else.”  
Emma slipped into his arms again, just wanting to feel him against her. He planted a gentle kiss on her head before gently stroking her hair.  
“So her name is Ellie?” he asked.  
Emma pulled back and reached out to take his hand. He dropped his bag to the floor before taking hers. She led him toward what he knew was the nursery and he felt his heart start racing all over again. Emma switched on a dim light before letting go of his hand and making her way to the crib. He took a quick look around to see how she’d finished the room off. There was a lot of pink and purple.  
He waited in the doorway as Emma reached into the crib and pulled out a small, pink bundle. She made sure she was comfortable before bringing her over to him. He felt frozen in place.  
“Daddy,” she smiled as his eyes began to well up, “meet Eleanor Grace Miller. She’s been waiting for you.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Finally some time alone,” Natalie sighed as she collapsed onto the couch beside her husband.  
He pulled her into his shoulder, his eyes on the television. He’d been trying to catch up on the news he’d missed.  
“Are you okay?” she asked, wrapping an arm around his waist.  
He winced, and she noticed.  
“What was that?” she asked, sitting up.  
He wanted to say nothing, but he knew she’d see it eventually. So he sighed and lifted the side of his shirt. Natalie let out a short gasp as she stood from the couch and bent to inspect the bruises.  
“What happened?!” she kept her voice down, not wanting to wake the kids.  
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Taylor insisted, “they’re nearly gone.”  
“What happened?” Natalie repeated, her voice stern and telling him she wouldn’t stop asking.  
He checked over his shoulder to make sure they didn’t have any eavesdroppers.  
“Carey and I got beaten for talking out of turn,” he shrugged, “they didn’t break any bones, it was just bruising. I think they only lasted so long because our diet wasn’t great.”  
“Speaking out of turn?” her brow rose, “where were you?”  
“Sit down,” Taylor indicated for her to sit where she had been before, “please?”  
Natalie paused, but did as he asked. He waited until she was comfortable again before saying anything.  
“We were taken by the Russian military,” he revealed, “I think they wanted us for some kind of program. They weren’t overly happy that we weren’t all identical already.”  
“What kind of program?” Natalie frowned.  
“I don’t know, they never said,” he scratched at his face, “and anytime we asked they just ignored us. They were showing us off to people though, so someone knew.”  
“Showing you off?”  
“Yeah…” he wasn’t sure how to explain it, “it was hard to understand because not many of them spoke English.”  
“What were they doing to you? Is there anything you need to talk about?”  
Taylor shook his head.  
“No, I don’t think so,” he frowned, “I only left that cell four times. It was just the isolation driving me crazy. I’ll get over it.”  
Natalie hugged his waist a little tighter, hoping he was right. It had been a rough ride after he’d been taken by the labs. She just hoped this was different.  
“There’s something else,” he admitted after some quiet time.  
“What?” she was immediately worried.  
“On the plane back Morris mentioned something. About the kids.”  
Natalie sat up again to study his face.  
“What?” her voice lowered.  
“We have time,” he insisted, “but he wants to run some tests, particularly once they hit puberty.”  
“You’re joking.”  
“I’m not,” his brow rose, “and we know them, we know they won’t take no for an answer.”  
Natalie put a hand to her forehead, unsure of how she was supposed to react.  
“He said we had time to explain to them what was going on so it won’t be too hard on them, but I don’t know how we’re going to do it,” he shrugged.  
“I can’t believe this,” she muttered, “what right does he think he has? Since when do they have the right to touch them, let alone take them whenever they right well feel like it?!”  
“About that…” Taylor clenched his teeth.

“We need to talk,” Emma announced the moment Carey had closed the nursery door.  
Carey took a deep breath before scratching his head again.  
“Okay,” he agreed, already worried.  
She led him back to the living room and they both took a seat on the couch.  
“What’s wrong? Aside from the obvious,” his brow furrowed.  
“I can’t keep doing this,” she began, keeping her eyes down.  
His breath caught in his throat. He’d already felt like he was on an emotional rollercoaster and he’d been ready to just sleep it off. Apparently it wasn’t time to get off the ride yet.  
“What do you mean?” he was afraid to ask, fearing the worst.  
“This. You, not being here. Just disappearing all the time,” she shrugged awkwardly, “and I know it’s not your fault, but now with Ellie…”  
“What are you saying?” he took hold of one of her hands, “are you saying you don’t want me here?”  
“Of course not,” she scowled, finally looking him in the eye, “the _problem_ is you not being here. Why would I want you to leave?”  
“I don’t know, I don’t know what you’re saying,” he admitted, worry evident now on his face.  
“I want to meet Natalie.”  
Carey paused, taking a moment to think of who she was talking about.  
“Natalie Hanson?” he raised a brow.  
Emma nodded.  
“Why?” he was confused.  
“Because she’s the only other wife I know of, and I know what happened to Chelsea.”  
Carey sat back a little, a knowing look appearing in his eyes.  
“If you and Mark go missing again, I don’t have anyone to contact anymore. It’s not something I can talk to Rachel or anyone else about. I need someone else in my corner – someone who knows what’s going on and is just as frustrated as I am.”  
“I know what you’re saying,” he insisted, “but I don’t think it’s a great idea.”  
“You don’t?” her brow rose.  
“No,” he shook his head, “not after everything with Mark, and especially not now after the labs. Taylor’s problems are not problems that we want.”  
“What are you talking about?” she frowned, “what problems?”  
“You know…” he shrugged, “celebrity problems. Being in the spotlight. That was Mark’s problem to begin with.”  
“You don’t think it’s different now? Now that he knows you?”  
“He doesn’t know me,” Carey insisted, “he doesn’t know any of us.”  
“And that should change,” Emma hit back.  
“I swear, I get where you’re coming from,” he tried to pacify her, “and I know it’s gotta be hard – it’s not a walk in the park for me either. But this is something we can work out for ourselves. I can organise some kind of protection for the two of you, we have money leftover…”  
He stopped himself when she reached forward to put a hand on his cheek.  
“Care, I love you,” she insisted, “and I don’t want to go behind your back on this. So this is why I’m telling you now. If you don’t call the Hansons for me, I’ll do it myself.”  
He grit his teeth as she stood from the couch and made her way back into the kitchen.

Natalie was getting ready for bed when Taylor got out of the shower. Ever since he’d told her what Morris had said, she’d gone unusually quiet. He knew it was a lot to take in and wasn’t going to prod her.  
When his cell phone rang from the bedside table she only looked across at it before he ducked around the bed to grab it before it could wake someone up.  
“It’s Carey,” he frowned, giving her a glance.  
She said nothing as she sat on the bed to wait. She knew it had to be important.  
“Yeah?” he answered, worried already.  
“Hey, sorry it’s late…” Carey was still sitting on the couch, this time alone, “have you got a second?”  
“Sure,” he looked across at Natalie.  
She looked tired, but he knew she wouldn’t be ready to sleep yet.  
“My wife, Emma, just gave me a bit of an ultimatum… I kinda need a favor.”  
“What kind of favor?”  
“She wants to meet your wife, Natalie,” he came out with, making Taylor look across at her again, “I understand if it’s too weird for you guys or if it’s going to be too much trouble, but I think she just wants someone to talk to about the whole clone thing who isn’t me or my brother.”  
“What?” Natalie frowned, noticing the look he was giving her.  
“I understand,” Taylor said into the phone.  
“And I know you guys probably have this whole weird paranoid privacy thing going on because of the fans and all that-“  
“I think we crossed that barrier long ago,” Taylor cut him off before he could get carried away (and maybe tell him what he really thought), “it’s cool. We should organise something.”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah sure. When would be good for you?”  
“Well… I’m still out of a job and Emma’s on maternity leave…”  
Taylor paused when he remembered they’d just had a baby before looking at Natalie again. She was still frowning at him.  
“…So anytime really.”  
“Did you want to come to Tulsa?”  
“If that’s okay.”  
“Sure it is, we’ll work something out.”  
“Okay… when?”  
“Ah… call me tomorrow?” Taylor suggested, “about lunch time? Mine or yours, it doesn’t matter.”  
“Okay. Cool. Talk then.”  
“Bye Carey.”  
Taylor frowned as he hung up before scratching at his head.  
“So…?”  
“Carey’s wife wants to meet us,” he explained, “so I said we’d organise something.”  
“They want to come here?” her eyebrows rose, “when the kids have already had to deal with Damien and Jesse?”  
“Damien hardly counts,” Taylor winced, “but I know what you mean…”  
“And we can’t exactly go out to eat together or anything,” she pointed out, “we’re going to have to do it here.”  
“Could always send them to their Uncles’ for dinner,” Taylor suggested, “they do it to us all the time.”  
Natalie nodded, too tired to think about it properly.  
“We’ll work something out,” she stood up to pull the bedcovers aside.  
He watched her for a moment before putting the phone on charge and going to turn the lights off.

Alex pursed his lips as Damien walked back and forth, making sure he was checking everything off a list as he went.  
“And that’s for your allergies. You shouldn’t have any trouble in here but sometimes the air control gets something in there or there’s a spill in the lab and suddenly there’s fumes to deal with,” he was saying as he handed Alex a small box, “you have an inhaler too, don’t you?”  
“I did,” Alex nodded.  
“Okay I’ll see about finding one of those too. Will you be okay until this afternoon?”  
“I should be,” Alex figured he’d been without it long enough already.  
“Great,” Damien smiled, “we’ll go get breakfast in about five minutes. I’ll take these sign-out sheets back to the stock room and I’ll come back to show you where it is.”  
Alex watched as he left without saying anything else before looking down at his hands. Damien had gone through his profile from his induction, found every medication he’d been taking – or might need – and found them for him already. While it calmed him somewhat to know that Damien wanted to look after him this way, it made him wonder how much further it was going to go. It was only the first morning.  
He was back in minutes minus the paperwork and indicated for Alex to follow him from the room. They headed down the same corridor they’d come in before turning at a right angle to the right. It felt like they’d walked half a mile before coming to what appeared to be a common area for employees.  
“Good morning Damien,” another doctor gave him a nod on the way in.  
“Ralph,” Damien returned.  
Alex had noticed him ignoring everyone else. People only gave them a second glance when they realised Alex was there. He guessed it was more to do with his face than anything else.  
“After this we’ll get you a security pass,” Damien had headed right for the coffee machine, “but then I have to go back to work and find out what I’ve missed out on. You’ll be okay for the afternoon, right?”  
“Sure,” Alex was hugging himself as he looked around the cafeteria.  
There was fruit and biscuits set out, some refrigerators with both soda and water, and a Bain Marie on the far wall. There were five people already eating.  
“How many people live here?” he asked, before realising Damien had been holding a cup of coffee out toward him and quickly declining.  
“Not many,” he replied before taking a sip himself, “but a lot of people work overnight and we have bunks they can stay in if they need to. There’s only… five of us that live onsite.”  
“Is Morris one of them?” Alex eyed him worriedly.  
“When he’s not travelling, yes,” Damien nodded, “go ahead and grab some food. You can come back at any time of the day, it’s open 24/7.”  
Alex took another look around, hoping there was nothing he was allergic to. At Damien’s insistence he followed him to the Bain Marie and decided to quickly put together some eggs on toast.


	5. Chapter 5

Mark had cleaned up what he could find of the broken glass and had scrubbed what he could of the blood out of the tiles. The stain remained in the grout but there was still one near the door from Trixie as well.  
He gave up quickly. He wasn’t sure why he was bothering if he wasn’t going to stay.  
He made his way to the bedroom and opened the curtains to the view outside before going to find both his duffel bag and one of Colin’s suitcases. He didn’t want to take too much with him – Colin’s clothes, while suiting this area of Chicago, weren’t entirely comfortable on him – but he knew he could pawn some of his things and at least get some cash out of it.  
One of the first things he did was go around the apartment and find all the places Colin had hidden money. He slipped $2k of it into his duffel and piled the rest into what must have been one of Colin’s wife’s handbags. He’d long ago assumed she was dead. She would have been back for her things by now if not.  
Maybe the same people that killed Chelsea had taken her out too.  
Refusing to dwell on it, he grabbed a lot of Colin’s expensive accessories and some of his clothes that he didn’t mind and began to pack. When he was done he sat back on the bed to call the airline and book a flight for the next day. That done, he went to the window to make the most of this last day with a view.  
Going back to LA was going to suck, but he knew a worse fate awaited him if he stayed here. His phone had thirteen missed calls from Russo already and he wasn’t about to call him back.

“So this is your pass,” Damien was handing Alex a laminate, “it’s a restricted access because you don’t really need more than that, but it allows you to stay in the common areas and you can go up to level three.”  
“What’s level three?” Alex asked, taking the lanyard.  
“That’s where they keep the clone projects.”  
Alex looked up in surprise. He hadn’t really expected them to let him see much at all, let alone give him access to an entire level.  
“I assume you’ll want to use it to see Jesse, but Morris has instructed that you only see him while under guard. Shouldn’t be hard, he’ll probably be under guard the entire time he’s here.”  
“Is he here already?” Alex asked.  
“No, they’re expecting him tomorrow night if nothing goes wrong,” Damien didn’t seem happy, “you’ll find out when I do.”  
“Thanks,” Alex was looking the laminate over.  
It had his original profile photo on it.  
“I should probably let you settle in…” Damien began to fidget, “um… most people know where to find me if you need anything.”  
“Thanks,” Alex looked up again.  
“Sure,” Damien gave him a nod before backing out of the room.  
He closed the door behind himself and Alex heard his footsteps walking away. He waited until he was sure he was gone before eyeing the laptop again.  
He went for it. When he opened it he found it password protected, but it was an older operating system and he quickly found a back door. The first problem he came across was the lack of internet connection.  
He had a quick look around the desk, and then around the room, but he found no phone line anywhere. The laptop wasn’t picking up any Wi-Fi signals. He momentarily tried to remember if he’d seen any phone lines in the common areas he’d been into already, but quickly dismissed the idea. Someone might see him trying and he could get in trouble.  
With a defeated sigh he sat back into the computer chair and swivelled it slightly, before a folder on the desktop caught his eye. Entitled ‘C Project’ he instantly leant forward and opened it.  
The first thing he saw were .jpg scans of each of the clone profiles. Six of them, at least. Keandre’s looked like it had been emailed rather than scanned. There wasn’t one for Damien.  
As he looked further he saw a lot of documents that seemed to detail the tests that had been done on Taylor, Isaac and Jesse. Not a lot of it made sense to him because he didn’t know a lot of the terminology. There appeared to be blank forms set up for the same tests to be done on the other clones, and he ended up chewing on his fingernails when he saw that his name was on that list. He couldn’t tell what the tests were, but he was sure that not knowing was worse.  
When he came to another folder within the folder titled ‘Non Resident’ he opened it to find a single text file. Curiosity getting the better of him, he opened that too.  
It took him a moment to work out what it was but once he did he let out a short gasp. It was a list of the clones with Keandre included, but none of the original six. It included their age, date of birth, date of embryo manufacture, mother’s (or ‘carrier’) name, and past and current residences.  
The list was more than a page in length.

“Hey. I am… returning my original call,” Carey wasn’t sure how to start.  
“Just give me a second,” Taylor quickly finished what he was doing with Viggo before heading to the study.  
He waited until he had the door closed.  
“Okay.”  
“So…?”  
“How’s this weekend for you?” Taylor suggested, “we’ll send the kids over to my brothers’ and have the house to ourselves. Nat and Emma can get to know each other then. We’ll have maybe… four hours? Five?”  
“Saturday?”  
“Yeah.”  
“I’ll let Em know. It’s not going to be too weird for Natalie, is it? I mean, with me there.”  
“She’s already met Jesse, she’ll be fine,” Taylor assured.  
“Great.”  
“I’ll text you the address on Friday. If you haven’t heard from me by Friday night, just text me or something.”  
“I will. Thanks. Thanks for this.”  
“I’ll see you Saturday.”

“Have you had dinner yet?” Damien asked when he came back to the room.  
Alex shook his head from where he sat on the couch to the right.  
“Let’s go then,” Damien indicated for him to follow him out.  
Alex did so, relieved just to get out of the room. The white walls were nearly worse than the Russian cell. He closed the door behind him on the way out and followed Damien down the hall.  
“Did you find what you were looking for?” Damien asked without looking back.  
“Sorry?” Alex frowned.  
“On the laptop. You were on it most of the afternoon.”  
Alex stopped in his tracks. He hadn’t even thought to check the room for surveillance. Despite his search for a phone line.  
“No,” he admitted as Damien stopped to wait.  
“Anything I can help with?” he raised a brow.  
Alex was suddenly very uncomfortable. More than he had already been. Damien didn’t seem bothered at all by the intrusion and it was off-putting to say the least.  
“You don’t have any internet,” Alex finally said.  
“I’ve never needed it,” Damien shrugged, “but I have access in one of the main lobbies.”  
“Can I go there?” Alex asked hopefully.  
“I’ll take you there later,” Damien promised, “for now, we need to eat.”  
He began walking again and Alex rushed to catch up. Dinner wasn’t any more awkward than breakfast and after it they headed straight back to the room. Damien went to his laptop where he started to look over charts he’d brought with him on a USB drive, and Alex just sat on the couch to wait.  
“What do you do when you’re bored?” he asked eventually.  
“Hm?” Damien quickly finished what he was doing before turning in his seat.  
“What do you do when you’re bored?” Alex repeated, “what do you do all day?”  
“I’m not really bored,” Damien considered, “I’m always working.”  
“On the clone projects?” Alex’s brow rose.  
“Not just that,” he scratched at his nose, “there’s a few things I’ve gotten involved in. But a lot of it’s classified.”  
Alex nodded, knowing that meant he couldn’t tell him anything.  
“I could show you some of the clone stuff though, you’ve been given official access to it,” Damien suggested coyly.  
“Like what?” Alex was wary.  
“Like the research we’ve been doing on the flaws,” Damien shrugged, “now that we have data from Isaac Hanson we’ve been able to pinpoint what went wrong with most of us.”  
“Wrong?” Alex frowned, “we’re flawed?”  
“I mean yeah,” he looked back to the screen, “all of us have something more in common with Isaac than the others. We haven’t figured out yours yet, but… we’ll find it.”  
Alex hesitated at that, wondering what he was in for.  
“What’s your flaw?” he asked.  
Damien paused, before standing from his seat. Alex leant back a little as he approached and held out his hands palms down.  
“Look at the moles,” he instructed, making Alex lean forward again, “look at the placing. They’re entirely different to yours.”  
Alex automatically held his own arms out to study his own markings.  
“I never noticed,” he frowned, “so mine are like Taylor’s?”  
“We haven’t done a full scan, but they should be,” Damien dropped his arms and tapped his chin, “including that one.”  
Alex’s hand went to his own chin to feel it.  
“If you don’t mind… we could do a body scan on you in the next couple of days,” he suggested, “and make sure. We have Taylor’s – we could compare them. Together.”  
Alex had to think it over. On the one hand it sounded like he was walking into a trap. On the other… he did really want to know, and he sensed that Damien was just as honestly curious.  
“Okay,” he agreed without thinking too much more.  
“Great,” Damien grinned, “I’ll order it and see when we can get you in.”

Taylor was just stepping out of Walmart when his face connected with a woman’s palm.  
He blanched from the hit and took a step back, barely taking in her face before she started ranting.  
“How dare you!” she demanded at the top of her voice, “vous n'avez jamais appelé! Que dois-je dire ŕ Kiara? Vous êtes un homme horrible! J'espère que vous brûlez en enfer!”  
Taylor looked around in shock. Luckily the car lot was mostly deserted, but a younger couple had stopped to watch.  
“Qu'est-ce que tout le discours sur le retour en France et de faire une vie ensemble? Tu me dégoutes!”  
“Look I am so sorry,” Taylor backed off a little in case she was going to hit him again, “but I swear I don’t know you. I don’t know who you are, or what you’re talking about. You need to calm down.”  
“Calm down?! Comment oses-tu! Si mon frčre était ici tu serais un mort!“  
“And I don’t know that much French!” he insisted before something dawned on him.  
He raised a hand, half to pacify her and half for defence.  
“You think I’m Keandre,” he realised.  
“Qui d'autre seriez-vous?! Je ne joue pas ce jeu!”  
With that, she stalked off to a waiting car. Taylor watched her go and didn’t move until she was out of sight. Rubbing his face he locked eyes with the young couple who quickly went on their way.  
“What the fuck?” he muttered to himself, glad that none of the kids had been with him, “the guy was in Tulsa for five minutes.”  
He took another quick look around to make sure no one else had seen – in particular no one he knew – before heading for his own car.


	6. Chapter 6

Mark had finished grabbing every last minute thing he needed and managed to pile it into the elevator. He’d already ordered a cab and knew by now it would be waiting downstairs. He sighed as the doors closed on the apartment and he couldn’t help feeling a little depressed. It had been fun pretending to be a rich asshole, at least for a while.  
When the doors opened on the ground floor Ronaldo immediately rushed to help him.  
“Going away again Mr Reis?” he assumed, taking both the duffel and suitcase from him.  
“Yeah,” he replied, left with only the women’s handbag and a briefcase that he planned to take as carry on, “don’t know when I’ll be back this time.”  
Ronaldo took the bags out to the cab and quickly and efficiently loaded them for him. Mark stood idly by, feeling odd at letting him do it. Ronaldo came back and offered to take the briefcase as well but Mark shook his head and the cab driver closed the trunk.  
“Have a pleasant trip, Mr Reis,” Ronaldo offered a smile.  
“Hey Ron…” he pulled him aside before he could go back in, “is there any chance you could organise a cleaner for the apartment? They can come anytime, I won’t be here.”  
“Sure thing Mr Reis. I’ll call the resident cleaner as soon as possible.”  
“Thanks,” he bit his lip, “and uh… thanks for everything.”  
“It’s no problem Mr Reis.”  
“Wait!” Mark stopped him walking away again, and he could feel himself blushing a little, “I wanted to give you something. You’ve always been a great help, and uh… I know it’s your job and everything but that doesn’t mean I’m not grateful. So… here.”  
He handed Ronaldo the handbag.  
“For your wife. The contents are for you. Don’t open it!” he insisted when Ronaldo went to look, “just… wait until I’m gone.”  
“Sure thing Mr Reis, have a great trip!” Ronaldo looked more than surprised.  
He wasn’t walking away now, he was waiting for Mark to get in the cab.  
“And another thing…” he winced a little, “my name… isn’t Reis. It’s Mark. Mark Miller.”  
Ronaldo nodded, not looking at all surprised.  
“Have a great trip Mr Miller,” he corrected himself.  
Mark hesitated at his lack of reaction, before smiling to himself and finally getting in the cab. Ronaldo gave him a wave as he drove away.  
He took a deep breath before pulling his cell phone from his pocket and texting Carey to tell him he was on his way to the airport.

“Ike you won’t believe what just happened,” Taylor was on his phone as he neared the studio.  
Isaac had called to ask him something or he would have simply waited until he got there.  
“Some random lady just slapped the crap out of me at Walmart.”  
Isaac broke out laughing and couldn’t respond.  
“I’m serious!” Taylor scorned, “she was speaking in French, I have no idea what she was saying!”  
“Wait, French?”  
“ _Yeah_.”  
“…Keandre?”  
“Who else?! I swear the guy was here for five minutes and who knows what he’s done in that time!”  
“He can’t have gotten up to too much, he spent most of his time here at the studio,” Isaac tried to reassure him, “I’m sure it’s a one-off.”  
“I hope so,” Taylor agreed as he turned onto Main Street, “how he managed to find the one French person in the area I have no idea.”  
“Maybe he knew her? From home?”  
“Like I said, I had no idea what she was saying. She was just not happy,” he insisted as he pulled into his parking space.  
He paused.  
“Tay…?” Isaac realised he wasn’t getting a response.  
“Ike he’s outside,” he gulped slightly.  
“Outside where? Wait, who?”  
“Keandre,” Taylor insisted, “he’s outside 3CG. What do I do?!”  
“Wait,” he heard Isaac end the call abruptly.  
Taylor knew Keandre had seen him, but he’d paused just the same. He obviously hadn’t shaved since his time in Russia and his hair was messily all over the place. He wore a long red coat he easily could have picked up from a second hand store.  
Before he could judge further, the door to 3CG opened. He saw Isaac’s head before he beckoned to Keandre to go inside with him. Taylor waited until the door closed before having a quick look around. There weren’t many people in the street, and those that were didn’t seem to be paying attention.  
He hoped they weren’t paying attention.  
He quickly got out of the car and headed inside, purposely not looking up as he did so. Inside he found Isaac and Keandre already translating speech to each other.  
“How did he get here so fast?!” Taylor was incredulous, making them both look up.  
“Hello Taylor,” Keandre smiled.  
“He came to get his stuff,” Isaac was just as incredulous, shrugging as Keandre typed on his phone.  
“He flew all the way back here for his luggage?” Taylor frowned.  
“Maybe he had something important in there.”  
“You are okay,” Keandre looked over at Taylor as he handed Isaac his phone back, “from Russia. You are okay.”  
“Yeah. Fine,” Taylor insisted, “you?”  
“I am okay,” Keandre smiled.  
“So he needs something he left behind in a particular bag,” Isaac had been reading the translation, “whatever it is didn’t translate but I’m assuming some kind of electronic.”  
“Do you have them here?” Taylor asked, not having been back to the studio since his return to the States yet.  
“In the storage room,” Isaac indicated for Keandre to follow him.  
They headed down the hall, Taylor following behind. He paused only when he saw Zac waiting on the sound booth couch. He was frowning in confusion as Keandre walked past him.  
“We’ve got a visitor,” he pulled his attention.  
“I see that,” Zac commented, “…how?”  
Taylor just shrugged as they heard Isaac fumbling with the bags.  
“He’s here for his stuff.”  
“Is that all he’s here for?”  
Taylor frowned at that as Keandre brought the first case out and set it aside. Isaac followed with a backpack and was handing him another.  
“Ike can you ask him what his intentions are?” Taylor asked as Isaac closed the door behind them.  
“What do you mean?” he looked up as Keandre collected the backpack.  
“He’s obviously just flown in. What does he plan to do? Go straight back?”  
“It wouldn’t make sense,” Zac shrugged, not bothering to get up from his spot.  
Keandre had paused, looking between them. He was only picking up a few words here and there. Isaac pulled out his cell phone and got back onto the translator.  
‘What will you do now?’ he asked.  
Keandre read it before shrugging and typing out a reply.  
‘Go back to the hotel’.  
“The Fairfield?” Zac’s brow rose, Keandre nodding agreement with him.  
“Why? Why does he want to stay here?” Taylor frowned.  
Isaac asked, and Keandre replied.  
“He wants answers,” Isaac revealed, “you gotta admit, he didn’t get many last time.”  
“What answers? We don’t know anything,” Taylor’s frown only deepened.  
“That’s not true,” Zac corrected, “you’d probably know a lot more than he does. What have you even told him?”  
“That his Mom was part of an experiment,” Isaac looked to the ceiling as he tried to remember, “that she fled the States with him as a kid… he would have guessed the clone situation by now, surely.”  
Recognising that they were confused, Keandre took the translator back.  
“You said you knew about my parents,” Isaac read out loud, “oh…”  
“What was that?” Zac asked.  
“I told him I had something to tell him about his parents,” Isaac admitted, “I remember now. I guess… well, we could tell him about Mom and Dad?”  
“Maybe we do need to have a good talk, but we also need to get some overdue work done,” Zac pointed out, “this could take us all day.”  
“I don’t want him back at the Fairfield,” Taylor insisted, “not after what happened this morning. We need to put him somewhere out of the city.”  
“Well… he could stay with me?” Isaac suggested, “the boys have already met him, it wouldn’t take much to tell Odette what’s going on.”  
“What about Nikki?” Zac asked.  
“I’ll explain it,” Isaac shrugged.  
“If she says yes, just be careful,” Taylor insisted, “he’s a bit of a wild card.”  
“Don’t judge just because he can’t talk our language,” Isaac scorned, picking up the backpack Keandre had set down.  
“I’m not,” Taylor scorned back, “there’s other reasons.”  
“Well I’m going to take his stuff out to the car and give Nicole a call then tell him what’s going on,” Isaac insisted, “you two get back to work and I’ll be back in like an hour no matter what.”  
“Good luck,” Zac gave Keandre a wave as they both walked out.  
Taylor sighed after them before scratching at his head.  
“This is weird,” Zac said decidedly, still not moving from the couch.  
“I am not going to bother responding to that,” Taylor insisted, before following them to make sure they were actually going.

“Hey you,” Mark grinned as Emma ran into his arms.  
“Hey!” she planted a kiss on his cheek, “I was so worried about you, you dick!”  
“Well I’m back,” he insisted, “apparently I have a niece to corrupt now.”  
“You’ll do no such thing, Care will have that covered,” she insisted, leading the way to the baggage carousel.  
They collected his bags before heading out to her car. Mark insisted on carrying the heavy ones but offered her the briefcase to carry.  
“So how is he? Really?” Mark asked once they were in the car, “I mean you look good, for having a baby and all. But he was freaking out the whole ride back from Russia.”  
“He’s fine now, it’s just an adjustment,” Emma assured as she began to make her way out of the parking lot, “he came home and his whole world had changed. It’s understandable it’d take a while to sink in.”  
“So he’s on babysitting duty now then?”  
“It’s not babysitting when it’s your own kid,” Emma scorned, “but he wanted me to get out of the house, yes.”  
Mark nodded at that, casting his eyes outside. He hadn’t been back to LA since just before the wedding, and even then he hadn’t spent much time here.  
“How’s Dad?” he asked.  
“Fine last I heard. I called the home on Monday.”  
“I’ll go see him when my car gets here,” Mark nodded to himself.  
“Your car?”  
“Yeah I’m having it trucked down. I might have to give up the apartment but there’s no way I was giving up that car,” he insisted.  
“I look forward to seeing it in our driveway,” Emma mused.  
“It’ll be a couple of days. Besides, I don’t want to be there longer than I have to be. I’ll start looking for a place right away.”  
“You don’t have to,” Emma insisted, “it’s a big house. I’m sure we won’t get in each other’s way.”  
“You got a kid to consider now,” Mark shrugged, “I don’t want to do the two men and a baby routine.”  
“You’re worried you’re going to fall in love,” Emma teased, checking her mirror as she turned a corner.  
“That is hardly the issue,” Mark scorned, “I just don’t want to take up space.”  
“Sure. Whatever you need to tell yourself.”  
Mark rolled his eyes and looked out the window again.  
“Has Care heard from Alex yet?” he asked absently.  
“Not that I know of.”  
“Me neither,” he rubbed his chin worriedly, “might need to give the good doctor a call.”  
“Settle in first,” Emma insisted, “we’ve got someone we want you to meet.”  
Mark smirked at that, but he was actually looking forward to it.  
“Yes ma’am,” he saluted.


	7. Chapter 7

“Hey,” Carey looked up from where he sat on the couch, Ellie in his lap.  
“Hey yourself,” Mark set the briefcase on the kitchen counter.  
“Have you been there this whole time?” Emma mused, making her way over to her husband and planting a kiss on his cheek.  
“She fell asleep. I didn’t want to wake her,” he whispered back.  
Emma looked up at Mark and indicated for him to come over. Mark hesitated for a moment, but when Carey looked up again to see where he was he pulled himself together and made his way to the side of the couch.  
“She won’t bite,” Carey whispered to him, “she doesn’t have teeth.”  
Mark smirked at that as Carey shifted a little, still being careful not to disturb her. Mark stopped when he could see her face. She was wrapped in a white blanket and wearing a thin pink beanie.  
He felt goose bumps cover his arms as he stared at her while she slept.  
“Want to hold her?” Carey offered, visibly unsure if it would wake her.  
“No,” Mark insisted.  
He looked just as awkward as he felt. Unsure of what to do with his hands he slid them into his pockets.  
“Okay,” Carey nodded, settling her back again, “when you’re ready.”  
Mark gulped a little as Emma stood from leaning over the couch and came to his side.  
“Don’t be scared,” she insisted, her hand slipping around his right wrist and pulling his hand from his pocket to hold, “she’s going to love you.”  
“It’s not that,” Mark insisted, keeping his voice down just like they were.  
“Then what?”  
Mark hadn’t taken his eyes off her. When Carey looked up at him again it seemed to snap him out of it.  
“I’m just not ready,” he insisted, “I don’t want to hurt her.”  
“Then we’ll try tomorrow, yeah?” Emma pressed him.  
“Yeah maybe.”  
“She’s not going anywhere. Well… except Tulsa. Tomorrow.”  
“What?” Mark frowned at her.  
“We’re going to meet the Hansons. We’ll only be away for two nights. We were hoping you could housesit.”  
“I just get here and you’re leaving me?” Mark frowned at Carey.  
“Sorry I didn’t think to call,” he whispered back, “I was a little preoccupied.”  
“Already using your kid as an excuse. Great.”  
“Let me show you where you’re sleeping,” Emma attempted to pull him away, “she’ll be awake soon I’m sure.”  
Mark pulled a face but let her lead him toward the bedrooms, stopping only to grab his bags. Carey watched him go before focusing on Ellie again. Just as Emma had predicted she was beginning to stir.

Nikki yawned as she took a seat at the kitchen counter the following morning. She’d just reached for a nearby catalogue when a shadow in the corner of her eye caught her attention. She watched as Keandre appeared from the hall – wearing one of Isaac’s robes – and made his way right into the kitchen. He offered her a smile and a nod before starting to open the cupboard doors.  
Nikki watched him curiously, unsure of how to tell him not to do it. Isaac was in the shower and she hadn’t charged her phone overnight to use the translator.  
He eventually found the mugs and set three on the counter before aiming for the coffee machine. Realising what he was doing Nikki breathed a sigh of relief. While he was very similar to Taylor in a lot of unforeseen ways, he was still a stranger in her home. She had to remind herself not to let her guard down despite her subconscious trying to insist he was her brother-in-law.  
It was even harder when he had his contacts in, but he didn’t seem to wear them often indoors.  
“Lait?” his voice snapped her out of it.  
“No, no thank you,” she offered a smile.  
At least her time in France had made it somewhat easier to communicate with him than it would have been beforehand.  
By the time Isaac emerged he had three coffees made ready on the counter. He handed Nikki hers first before indicating which one was for Isaac and taking his own to the corner of the counter.  
Without saying a word Isaac took his and tried it. His eyebrows rose.  
“This is almost like the one I had in Toulouse,” he realised.  
“Same here,” Nikki agreed, “he must have remembered our orders.”  
Keandre didn’t know what they’d said, but he could guess. He smirked to himself a little as he drank his own coffee paying them no mind.  
“How long is he staying here?” Nikki asked her husband.  
“I’m not sure,” Isaac was honest, “Tay and Zac are coming over today and we’re going to try and tell him everything.”  
“Taylor come here today?” Keandre confirmed when he recognised some words.  
“Oui,” Isaac gave him a nod, watching him return to his coffee once he got his answer.  
“He’s an odd one,” Nikki agreed without Isaac having to say anything, “and I’m not talking about the language barrier.”  
Isaac sighed before taking a seat beside her.  
“Hopefully we can give him the answers he wants and he’ll decide he’s better off at home,” he suggested, “I for one think he’d be a lot safer. They don’t seem to be in a rush to induct him to the program.”  
“Didn’t you say he’d already been attacked somehow?” Nikki frowned.  
“Sort of. I think they just gave him a tracer. I don’t think they’ve done any tests on him,” Isaac shrugged, “but he blacked out so maybe they did and he doesn’t remember.”  
“For his sake I hope they already have what they need,” Nikki took another sip.  
“Since when are any of the clones that lucky?” Isaac smirked.

It was about lunch time when Taylor arrived first and Zac shortly after. Taylor had brought Penny and River with him. As soon as Isaac realised, he hid Keandre in the hall.  
“What are you doing?” he demanded as soon as they came in.  
“What?” Taylor had been texting and hadn’t caught on.  
“Why would you bring them?” he watched after them as they began their search for Isaac’s brood.  
“It’s okay,” he shrugged, “Penny is starting to catch on, and River needs to find out eventually. I was going to bring Ezra but he had a basketball thing on.”  
“And… what are you doing?” Isaac indicated the phone he hadn’t put down as Zac finally made his way inside.  
“Carey’s texting from the road,” Taylor frowned, “they should be here either tonight or early tomorrow.”  
“Carey’s on his way?” Zac’s brow rose.  
“Yeah,” Taylor glanced over his shoulder, “and guess what?”  
“What?”  
“They’re vegan,” Taylor smirked, “I haven’t told Nat but I don’t know what we’re going to do for lunch tomorrow.”  
“Just grab something from the city, we have to get back to the studio tomorrow morning anyway,” Isaac shrugged as Zac just rolled his eyes and made his way through to the kitchen.  
“Right…” Taylor had forgotten already.  
“You’d better not forget,” Isaac warned.  
“I won’t. I’m just getting back into the rhythm,” Taylor sighed, finally putting his phone down, “so how do we want to do this?”  
“First I think you should introduce your kids,” Isaac suggested before following Zac.  
“Right…”  
Taylor followed him, greeting Nikki once he got to the kitchen. Isaac ducked back into the hallway to tell Keandre it was okay to come out. Taylor made his way to the back door to call Penny and River back in, directing them to the dining table where Zac and Isaac had both headed.  
“Guys? I want you to meet someone,” he put a hand on River’s shoulder as Keandre appeared in the doorway, “this is Keandre.”  
“Kea-what?” Penny looked up at her father.  
“Whoa!” River exclaimed the moment he saw him, “another one?!”  
“ _Ke-an-dre_ ,” Taylor sounded out for Penny.  
She moved before River did, ducking around the table to greet him.  
“Better reception than he got from the boys,” Isaac mused, scratching his beard.  
“Better reception than Jesse got,” Taylor shrugged in return.  
Keandre was looking down at Penny as she stood in front of him expectantly.  
“Where are you from?” she asked.  
“I am from France,” Keandre was happy enough that he understood her.  
“He has an accent!” River whispered.  
“Keandre, this is my daughter Penny,” Taylor introduced without moving, “and this is my boy, River.”  
“Tay’s fille et fils,” Isaac translated just in case.  
“Penny,” Keandre bowed to her.  
She giggled as he took her hand to shake it gently.  
“Do we have to call him Uncle too? How many do we have?” River looked up at Taylor.  
Taylor wasn’t sure what to say to that.  
“Ask him what he wants to be called,” Zac said from the other side of the table where his chin rested in his hand.  
Isaac dug out his translator and got to work as Penny waited patiently. Once Keandre read it he smiled.  
“Appelle moi Kea,” he shrugged.  
“Kea?” Isaac checked.  
He nodded before looking to take a seat at the table.  
“Kea it is,” Taylor agreed, “why don’t you guys head outside and we’ll call you in when food’s ready?”  
River took his time going to the door while Penny bit her lip as Keandre bowed to her again. She waited until he was done before curtsying.  
“Nice to meet you Kea,” she smiled before turning to follow her brother.  
Taylor waited until they were gone before finally taking a seat at the table. Keandre did the same opposite him… at the same time.  
“Okay that was weird,” Zac had to shake himself off, “so where do we start?”

Mark stood to the side of the driveway as the truck backed up. Once it was in place the driver fixed the trailer and got into the Camaro to back it off. Mark couldn’t help but grin once it hit the asphalt safely. He sobered once the hum of the engine stilled.  
He paid the driver, thanked the driver, and took his keys. He waited until the truck had driven away, made sure the house was locked up and secure, then bounded down to the car again and got himself in. He drove around his old streets for a time just basking in the odd looks he was getting until he started to feel uncomfortable. For a moment he began to feel like he was being followed. Shrugging it off as paranoia thanks to both the scientists and the Russians, he checked the time before heading a little further out of town.  
When he pulled up outside the old peoples’ home the stares from some of the older men outside gave him a different feeling than the ones on the street. The people he’d passed earlier had been watching with envy. These older men were commiserating the youth they would have needed to handle such a machine.  
He parked and made his way inside to the counter. There was someone new on the desk from when he’d been there last.  
“Hey…” he greeted, “I’m here to pick up Gerard Miller. Just for an hour or two.”  
“Afternoon,” the woman smiled at him before checking her paperwork, “and you are…?”  
“Marcus Miller. His son.”  
He waited while she made the necessary notations before waving him down the hall. He thanked her and headed for his father’s room.  
“Hey Dad,” he greeted as he entered the room, giving the older nurse with him a wave as she smiled, “sorry I haven’t seen you in a while, but I’m here to take you out for the afternoon. You’re going to love my new car. Can’t wait for you to see it.”  
He made his way to the wheelchair as she left the room, disengaging the brakes. He grabbed a nearby jacket and his father’s inhaler before starting to wheel him out.  
“I bet Carey hasn’t brought Ellie over yet, has he?” he began as they made their way down the corridor, “probably worried a granny will kidnap her and smother her in coochees and coocoos. Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll get here soon. Baby’s been keeping them up at all hours and it’s been non-stop crying, breastfeeding and shit. Sorry for swearing.”  
They made it outside and he helped his father into the passenger seat before throwing the wheelchair in the back. When he got into the driver’s seat, he paused.  
His father was running his hands gently over the car’s interior. He watched to make sure he didn’t alter anything on the touch screen before smiling to himself as he started the car up.  
“Hold tight Dad, we’re going for a drive.”


	8. Chapter 8

Jesse ignored the sounds of the holding cells as he lay on the bed with his eyes closed. He hadn’t bothered getting up even for the breakfast they’d offered him. He knew that today was the day.  
His eyes opened when he heard a different sound. The clang of a baton on the steel bars.  
“Musgrove. You’re up.”  
He sighed and finally pulled himself from the bed. He made his way to the cell door as it was being unlocked. The three thugs on the bench opposite looked glad to see him go.  
“Is Morris here?” Jesse asked before the door opened.  
“Don’t flatter yourself,” the officer mused, readying his hand cuffs.  
Jesse smirked as he turned his back and let himself be cuffed. The moment the door closed again the thugs took to fighting over the bed.  
“It’ll go easy if you make this easy,” the officer insisted.  
“You’ve done right by me Officer Parker, I’ll do right by you,” Jesse assured.  
The officer took him by the arm and led him out into administration. He waited patiently while they finished off their paperwork and someone in a lab coat signed him out. He didn’t recognise the newcomer.  
Once it was done Parker led him outside and he couldn’t help but groan internally when he saw the white van. The officer waited until he was properly loaded into the back before handing over the hand cuff key and nodding his goodbye. Jesse kept an eye on the handler who accepted the key, but he moved to get in the front of the van after closing the doors on him. They were careful to not give him any access.  
The ride to the labs was shorter than expected, and at first he was taken into the room with the six plexiglass cells. They took the cuffs off before locking him inside one and leaving him there without another word. He sighed as he looked around before heading straight to the bed and simply laying down again.

“Now what?” Zac watched as Keandre was pacing with his cell phone.  
“I don’t know,” Isaac was watching too.  
He was texting, but they didn’t know who to.  
“We can’t just keep him here,” Taylor was standing at the opposite end of the table with his arms folded, “he doesn’t belong here.”  
“Tay’s right,” Zac agreed, “he belongs at home, with his family.”  
“Actually I’m not sure he has much in the way of family,” Taylor frowned at that, “in Russia they said something about him having a step-father he emancipated himself from.”  
“He was worried about someone when I spoke to him,” Isaac shrugged, “he must have family somewhere.”  
“You don’t think he has kids, do you? A wife maybe?” Zac suggested.  
“No, I believe he’s sterile,” Taylor shook his head, “every official source so far pegs me and Carey as the only ones who aren’t.”  
“Maybe it’s a different kind of family,” Isaac considered, “I swear I saw him with two different women in the same afternoon over there. That added with Tay’s experience yesterday…”  
“What are you saying?” Zac asked, “you think he’s in a cult or something?”  
“I don’t want to speculate too much, but something like that would make sense,” Isaac shrugged again.  
“They said a couple of odd things about him in his profile,” Taylor was watching him now as well, “I just put it down to growing up in a different culture.”  
“That’s one way to put it,” Zac mused.  
Keandre paused and put a hand to his head, making the Hansons fall quiet. The tension was broken by Nikki appearing from the back door.  
“It’s getting late,” she announced, “are you boys staying for dinner, or…?”  
“No we’d better head off. I think Nat has plans,” Taylor assured, “but thanks.”  
“And we’re supposed to be going out so I am very late,” Zac realised, quickly standing from his seat.  
“You are going?” Keandre realised.  
“Oui, they are,” Isaac stood so he could see them out.  
“I’ll see you guys first thing in the morning,” Zac waved before heading out first.  
“Can you…?” Taylor indicated the door, and Nikki left to call River and Penny.  
“What am I do?” Keandre looked between he and Isaac as Taylor made his way over.  
“You can stay here tonight,” Taylor talked slower, hoping it would help, “and decide tomorrow what you want.”  
“Tomorrow,” Keandre repeated, looking to Isaac.  
Isaac just nodded before the kids appeared.  
“Don’t forget I’ve got Carey coming tomorrow so… you’ll have to just let me know how it goes,” Taylor said to him, reaching out to stop River from running after Monroe.  
“I will,” Isaac assured, “see you tomorrow Tay.”  
“Bye,” Taylor gave Keandre a quick wave before rounding his two up and herding them out to the car.

“Everything okay?” Damien asked when he returned from work that day.  
“Yeah, fine,” Alex replied, looking up from the desk, “why?”  
“Just asking,” Damien shrugged, pulling off his lab coat and hanging it on the back of the door, “Jesse got in today.”  
“He’s here?” Alex suddenly perked up.  
“Yes. I figured we’d organise for you to see him tomorrow before we do the scan.”  
Alex’s mood immediately dulled, though he was still looking forward to the prospect. He just hoped Jesse was still in one piece.  
“Okay,” he agreed sullenly.  
“I mean I would have done it for tonight but Morris left early and he did say he wanted a guard there so…”  
“It’s okay,” Alex insisted when he realised Damien was worrying about his reaction, “I’ll see him tomorrow.”  
Damien paused at that before frowning.  
“What have you been doing all day?” he asked.  
“Just catching up on sleep,” Alex shrugged, “and I went to get some lunch. One of the people there thought I was you and was asking why I’d been there twice.”  
Damien smirked at that.  
“Why am I here?” Alex asked suddenly.  
He’d been dying to ask all day.  
“What do you mean?” Damien frowned, “you needed somewhere to go, I just thought…”  
“But why am I _here_ , and not in a cell?” Alex elaborated, “why did you choose me to let free?”  
“I was hardly going to let Jesse wander around,” Damien folded his arms defensively, “everyone else had somewhere to go.”  
“So you trust the others too?” Alex asked.  
“No,” Damien admitted, “I don’t know that I ‘trust’ any of you, if I’m honest. This just seemed like a chance to… I don’t know.”  
He sighed uncomfortably.  
“Not be in this alone?”  
Alex’s eyes fell at that. He was starting to think that Jesse had been right. Maybe he was just lonely.  
“And you know a thing or two already from your research,” Damien went on, “so I didn’t think it would be that much of a stretch to you know, help me out a little here and there.”  
“By letting you test me?” Alex guessed.  
“Not just that,” Damien shrugged, “but maybe help me compare results from the others. I know it’s not something you’ll get into overnight and maybe you’ll want to move on eventually, but for now I just figured I could ease you into it. Take our time. Get to know each other.”  
Alex looked up to see his brow furrowed, but he quickly wiped the look from his face when he realised Alex had seen it.  
“That’s all?” he had to check.  
“That’s all,” Damien promised, “there’s nothing untoward going on here. Morris will vouch for that.”  
“Why did he leave early?” Alex asked, also wondering why he hadn’t seen him at all since he’d gotten there.  
“Personal business, I don’t ask,” Damien shrugged.  
“You’re not curious?” Alex frowned.  
“No,” Damien moved across to the bathroom, “ready to go for dinner?”  
“Sure,” Alex’s eyes fell once he’d left the room again, waiting for him to come out.  
Once he did they both left the room to head for the cafeteria again. Alex didn’t bother asking anything else. But the idea that Jesse was around somewhere at least made him feel a little more confident.

“Taylor they’ll be here any second! What did you get?” Natalie was fretting.  
“I panicked,” Taylor admitted, dropping the bags onto the counter, “I just grabbed anything that wouldn’t go cold.”  
Natalie started to inspect the contents before ordering him to get in the shower. He rushed to do as he was told, throwing on a clean pair of jeans and a white shirt when he was done. He was rushing to dry his hair with a towel when he came back to the kitchen to see if Natalie needed help with anything.  
“Is there something I can-“  
The doorbell rang.  
“Strike that,” he headed back to the bathroom to ditch the towel.  
Natalie quickly finished what she was doing, checked through the window that all five kids were outside, and headed for the door. Taylor met her there just as she was about to open it.  
Emma was the first person they saw, and she was holding Ellie.  
“Hi!” Natalie greeted with a smile, “come on in!”  
“Hi, thank you,” Emma smiled, stepping past her to do so.  
Taylor gave her a smile before Carey appeared behind her, wearing jeans, a black shirt and a beanie. Taylor held back a groan and forced a smile instead.  
“Hey,” he nodded to him.  
“Hey, I’m Carey,” he held his hand out to Natalie.  
“Natalie,” she returned, unable to stop herself staring a little, “glad to meet you, I’ve heard so much.”  
Carey eyed Taylor before following his wife through. Taylor shut the door behind them, gritting his teeth once he knew they were out of sight.  
Natalie helped Emma set herself up on the couch in the living area and Carey shadowed her with their nappy bag.  
“She’s gorgeous,” Natalie was already doting on Ellie.  
“Thank you,” Emma beamed.  
“She looks a lot like our youngest did when she was a baby.”  
“How do you want to do this?” Taylor appeared behind her, making her stand up, “with the kids I mean.”  
“A couple at a time?” Natalie suggested, “we can start with Penny and Ezra.”  
“You want to start now?” Carey looked worried.  
“We’ve got five kids, we can’t wait all day,” Taylor shrugged, making his way to the back door.  
“It’ll be fine,” Natalie insisted, sensing the tension, “the older ones have already met a couple of you.”  
“They have?” he frowned, “…how?”  
“Carey?!”  
“Just go,” Emma insisted, “give us some girl time!”  
Carey grunted but followed Taylor out. He stopped in his tracks when he saw that Taylor had two of them lined up already.  
“This is Ezra,” Taylor introduced him, patting his shoulder, “and this is Penny. Guys, this is Carey.”  
“This just gets better and better,” Penny was grinning already.  
“Um. Hi,” Carey looked as awkward as he felt.  
“Hi,” Ezra wasn’t fazed in the slightest.  
“Don’t look so scared,” Taylor mused, for some reason happy to see Carey uncomfortable somewhere other than a plane or a cell, “yours will be this big one day.”  
That brought a smile to Carey’s face, and Taylor took the moment to call River in. Carey could see the shadows of three more kids standing close to the doorway before one of them came inside.  
“And this is River…”  
“Does he have an accent too?” River asked first.  
“They met Keandre?” Carey frowned.  
“Damn.”  
“Just these two,” Taylor indicated Penny and River before Penny and Ezra, “and these two have met Damien, and all three have met Jesse. So we’re working our way through.”  
“The other two haven’t met any before,” Carey jumped when Natalie touched his arm, “so we’re trying a little experiment today.”  
“Oh. Great,” Carey folded his arms apprehensively.  
“Can you guys go and set the table? We’re gonna be careful with Viggo and Willa,” Taylor told the trio.  
“Come on,” Ezra pulled the shirts of the other two.  
Penny gave Carey another once-over before following her brothers.  
“Should we get him to sit down?” Natalie suggested.  
“On the couch?” Taylor indicated back where Emma was.  
Glad to have the option, Carey headed for it right away.


	9. Chapter 9

“Sorry it took so long,” Damien apologised when he appeared in the doorway, “but come on! They’re ready.”  
Alex jumped up from the chair ready to follow him right away. They headed through the corridors to an elevator in which Damien used his pass to get them up to the third floor.  
“There’s something you should know before we get there,” he began to fidget, keeping his eyes down.  
“Is Jesse okay?” Alex immediately worried.  
“He’s fine,” Damien assured, “it’s not about Jesse.”  
“Okay…” Alex was already confused.  
The elevator opened and Damien was hesitant to step out, so Alex led the way.  
“It’s about Colin Reis,” he said as he followed.  
“Colin?” Alex stopped in his tracks.  
“I know that’s probably a name you haven’t heard in a while,” Damien caught up to him, “but he’s still very much involved in the project we have here.”  
“He’s here?” Alex’s brow rose.  
“He is,” Damien confirmed before indicating a window behind him.  
Alex was hesitant, but his curiosity got the better of him. When he turned around he couldn’t help but jump.  
Colin was laying on a hospital-style bed. His head was almost completely bandaged, and there were multiple tubes going in and out of him.  
“Colin’s alive?” Alex gasped, “but how?”  
“Barely,” Damien stepped up to his side, “I’ll save you the medical jargon and just tell you he might as well be a shell. We haven’t detected any brain activity since he came here from Nevada.”  
Alex gulped a little. Seeing the clones out there living their lives was one thing, but seeing one completely incapacitated was another.  
It could easily have been him.  
“But we’re no longer looking either,” Damien admitted, “we’re just playing the waiting game now.”  
“Waiting for what?” Alex was afraid to ask.  
“For him to either wake up or pass on.”

Carey eyed Willa as she whispered into Taylor’s ear. From the look on Taylor’s face he knew it was about him.  
“What is it?” he asked straight out, making Willa blush.  
“She wants to know why you’re wearing a beanie at the table,” Taylor replied.  
“Oh sh-,” Carey cut himself off before quickly pulling it from his head, “sorry, I keep forgetting it’s there.”  
“How did you get your hair the same length as Dad’s?” Viggo asked him.  
“We had it cut at the same time,” Carey replied, not wanting to say any more.  
“What’s with the beanie anyway?” Taylor shrugged.  
“He’s self-conscious about his hair,” Emma replied instead between mouthfuls, “he hasn’t had it this short since… I don’t know, junior college?”  
“Something like that,” Carey stuffed it into a pocket before getting back to his meal.  
“So you were what, sixteen? When you started growing it?” Natalie guessed.  
“Seventeen,” he corrected, “it was after Taylor cut his. I figured he’d go shorter and I was right.”  
“You grew it because Taylor cut his?” Natalie was surprised.  
“He wanted to make sure they looked as different as possible,” Emma explained, “but then he found out I liked it and… the rest is history.”  
Carey was suddenly very focused on his meal.  
“Tay did say you were very strict on avoiding him as much as possible,” Natalie gave her husband a glance, “we tried not to take it personal.”  
“He was afraid of being found,” Emma shrugged, “but now that’s already happened so…”  
“It doesn’t mean it won’t happen again,” Carey frowned, playing with his food, “the Russians were a surprise. Who knows who else might be interested in the program? Maybe we’ll get stuck in a North Korean concentration camp next time.”  
“Excuse my ray-of-sunshine husband,” Emma apologised.  
“Why?” Carey looked up, “it’s not like it isn’t a legitimate threat.”  
“I never said it wasn’t,” Emma defended, “but this isn’t dinner table discussion. You need to learn the difference before Ellie gets older.”  
Carey looked toward Willa who was still leaning against her father’s chair. They’d seen her baby photos and she and Ellie did look a lot alike. It was a little disconcerting but not unexpected.  
“Sorry,” he begrudgingly apologised.  
“So did you two meet in junior college then?” Natalie turned her attention to Emma as Taylor simply watched the byplay.  
“No…” Emma gave her husband a calculating look, “but we aren’t all that sure when exactly we did meet, either.”  
“We went to the same elementary school,” Carey chimed in.  
“I think we started talking when I was about eleven… you would have been thirteen.”  
“Wow, so you were just kids,” Taylor appreciated.  
“Yeah but we were inseparable early on,” Emma mused.  
“Her parents weren’t happy,” Carey couldn’t help but smile, “about this wily teenager corrupting their innocent little daughter.”  
“Would you be if the same happened to Ellie?” Emma pointed out.  
Carey’s eyes went to where she’d been placed in a crib Natalie had provided for them.  
“I guess not,” he agreed.  
“I’m trying not to think about boyfriends yet,” Natalie admitted, “Penny’s already well and truly there.”  
“How old is she?” Emma asked.  
“Twelve this year,” Taylor replied, “so we almost have two teenagers in the house.”  
“It’s getting close,” Natalie agreed, “soon Ezra will be driving.”  
Taylor grunted at that.  
“I thought you said the kids wouldn’t be here, that you were going to take them to your brothers or something,” Carey’s voice was soft but his tone still accusatory.  
“Change of plans,” Taylor responded in kind, “we figured it would do them some good.”  
“How?” Carey frowned.  
“They’re going to be dragged into this eventually,” Taylor shrugged, “so we have to ease them into it somehow.”  
“By just introducing them to clones?”  
“What’s the problem?” Taylor frowned in return.  
“No problem I’m just questioning your methods,” Carey replied, “if what you need to condition them to is Morris, I don’t see what we have to do with that.”  
“Guys, can you go play with the others for me please?” Taylor looked down at Willa and across at Viggo.  
Viggo slid from his chair and came to take Willa’s hand. Willa’s eyes didn’t leave Carey until she’d actually left the room. Taylor waited until he was sure they’d be out of earshot before saying anything more.  
“We don’t know what Morris is going to throw at us,” he insisted, brow raised, “the first time Penny and Ezra were taken in, they introduced Damien to them as their Uncle. Without my knowledge. So if their intent is to do further testing – the likes of which Isaac and I have already seen – we have to make it as easy as possible for them. Who knows what else they might see in there?”  
“I’m not disputing that,” Carey scorned, “but if they’ve met Damien and they’ve met Jesse, why bother with me?”  
“Why not bother with you?” Natalie shrugged, uncomfortable at the tension they were creating, “you’re as much a part of this as anyone else.”  
“I’m not complaining,” Emma insisted, “I love the idea of seeing what Ellie might turn out like, and I wanted to get to know you guys better.”  
“I just don’t like being put on the spot,” Carey defended, “I wasn’t expecting to be put on show.”  
“I’m sorry,” Natalie spoke up before Taylor could, “we should have warned you. It’s probably my fault – I talked Tay into it last night when I was supposed to be organising their sitters instead.”  
“It’s okay, he’ll get over it,” Emma assured under her breath.  
Carey shot her a look. She ignored it.  
“I guess some time alone is out of the question,” she lowered her voice as Carey attempted to finish off his food, “these two might kill each other.”  
“Is this what it’s like with Carey’s twin?” Natalie asked her.  
“No, they’d be physical by now,” Emma sighed.  
Natalie gave Taylor a worried look at that. He just shrugged back at her.  
“Well you’re welcome to call me, if you need to,” Natalie reassured her, “or even if you just want to talk about this. I’d imagine it must be at least a little weird for you too.”  
“Oh it’s plenty weird,” Emma agreed, “my two are different enough without throwing the other… what are we up to now? Five? Into the mix. Having said that I’ve only really spent time with Jesse and Colin, and I’ve spoken to Alex over the phone.”  
“Jesse is certainly something,” Natalie nodded to herself, “I don’t know what I expected but he was nothing like it. He was so… big, and he held himself so differently. Seeing Carey is like what I’d imagined the clones would actually look like.”  
“Don’t forget the accent, the accent is amazing,” Emma held back a smirk.  
“This is getting awkward, just so you’re aware,” Taylor cut in.  
“Who else did you say you’d met?” Natalie asked her.  
“Colin,” both Emma and Carey replied in unison.  
“He’s the one that shot himself,” Taylor quickly checked over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening in.  
Emma reached over to grab her glass without saying anything else. Natalie realised the silence was awkward and decided not to press it.  
“When do you leave?” she asked instead, just as Ellie began to cry.  
“I’ll get her,” Carey jumped at the chance to leave the room.  
He stood and made his way out before anyone could say otherwise.  
“Tomorrow, early,” Emma replied, “we figure whatever hour Ellie wakes us we’ll make a start. We don’t want to leave Mark on his own for too long. He’s in a bit of trouble right now.”  
“Mark’s in LA?” Taylor folded his arms.  
“Yes, Care finally convinced him to come home,” Emma nodded, “I for one feel a lot better with him around. We can watch out for him and he can watch out for us.”  
“How are they so different?” Taylor asked, “for being twins and all.”  
“They’re really not,” Emma assured, “they were two peas in a pod as kids. Before Carey took an interest in me. Suddenly he and Mark wanted different things out of life.”  
“So if it weren’t for you we’d have two Marks to deal with?” Taylor’s brow rose.  
“Something like that. So I’ve been told, anyway.”  
“I’ll take a moment to thank God for that,” he smirked.

Alex was hugging himself as he waited for the door to be unlocked. The size of the bolts didn’t fill him with confidence of coming out again. But he was still wearing his pass, and Damien was right behind him.  
Once the locks were undone the handler indicated for the security guard to make his way in first. He drew his baton before the handler opened the door, and once he’d stepped inside called out the all-clear. Alex looked back at Damien who indicated for him to step inside.  
It was warmer in the cells. The second thing he noticed was the fluorescent lighting, unlike the tungsten in Nevada. The third was the glass instead of wire. Fourth, was Jesse in a cell to the left.  
“Al?” he rose from the bed and made his way to the door.  
The handler was waiting at the door to see if Damien would stay.  
“Hey,” Alex greeted awkwardly, looking back to check the same.  
“Did you want me to…?” Damien indicated the door.  
“Yes,” Jesse insisted firmly.  
Alex felt even more awkward than he had five seconds ago.  
“Come out when you’re ready,” Damien said to him before following the handler out.  
The door closed and Jesse eyed the guard.  
“Are you okay?” he asked without looking at him.  
“Yeah,” Alex nodded, “but… I just saw Colin.”  
Jesse’s eyes darted to him.  
“I’m sorry, you what?” his brow rose.  
“I just saw Colin, he’s here,” Alex finally looked up, “they’ve got him on life support. He’s not dead.”  
“But he’s not awake,” Jesse concluded.  
Alex shook his head as Jesse took the moment to comprehend it.  
“That was unexpected,” he admitted, “but not at all surprising, really.”  
“It’s not?” Alex frowned.  
“Of course not,” Jesse leant against the glass, “they probably have a moral standing against outright killing one of us, so why not just wait for one to expire?”  
Alex blanched at how casually he spoke of it.  
“A dead clone is probably a lot more valuable to them in a research sense than a live one,” Jesse reasoned.  
“Then why not switch the machine off? Get it over with?” Alex was confused.  
“It’s probably a legal thing and not their choice,” Jesse shrugged, “what have you been doing here? Where are they keeping you?”  
“I’ve been with Damien,” Alex glanced toward the door before taking hold of his pass and holding it up, “he got me this, and I can go anywhere on this level.”  
“Anywhere, huh?” Jesse looked it over with interest.  
“I think so. But I have to stay here on level three, or use the common areas the employees do. I’m staying in Damien’s room.”  
Jesse nodded, a little confused at that but not showing it.  
“I’m sure you’ve been having fun,” he stated blandly.  
“I don’t know that ‘fun’ is the word for it,” Alex gave the guard a glance, “but I’ve learnt some things. Some things I probably shouldn’t know.”  
“I’m listening,” Jesse leant forward with interest.


	10. Chapter 10

“You said that I could keep in contact with Mark,” Alex reminded Damien as he followed him back down the hall, “or… Morris did. Can I call him?”  
“Sure,” Damien threw a questioning glance over his shoulder, “when?”  
“Now?”  
Damien paused in his stride.  
“Why?” he frowned.  
“I just want to talk to him,” Alex shrugged, “I haven’t talked to him since the plane.”  
“But you’re not really friends with him, are you?” Damien asked.  
“Well no…” Alex was back to hugging himself, “but I still want to check in, and I know he’d want me to.”  
Damien eyed him for a moment as if to judge the sincerity. Alex was very uncomfortable under his gaze.  
“Okay,” he relented, “follow me.”  
He changed direction and Alex followed obediently, hoping this wouldn’t get too awkward.  
Damien led him to another common area where an internal phone sat connected to the wall. He picked up the receiver, Alex momentarily wondering when he’d last used a landline, before pulling a palm pilot from his lab coat and searching through it.  
“We have the last known phone numbers of the whole group,” he said absently as he worked, “but I don’t know which ones still work. So… good luck I guess.”  
He held it out once he found the page. At a first glance Alex recognised most of the numbers, and he knew right away that both Carey and Taylor’s would no longer work. He just hoped Mark’s would.  
“Dial ‘0’ first to call out,” Damien instructed, Alex quickly doing so.  
He dialled the number quickly so Damien could put the PDA away. He sighed in relief when he heard a dial tone.  
“Is it working?” Damien’s brow rose.  
“Yeah,” Alex nodded, “I’ll… meet you for dinner?”  
Damien paused, not expecting to be dismissed. But he nodded.  
“Okay,” he agreed before turning to leave.  
He hadn’t turned the corner before Mark picked up the other end.  
“Yeah?”  
“Mark it’s me. Alex,” he leant against the wall, quickly checking for any prying ears.  
“Alex! Where are you?”  
“Still at the lab. With Damien,” he replied, “I just saw Jesse. He’s here now too.”  
“Is he okay?”  
“He’s fine. Not a scratch on him.”  
“And you?”  
“Me neither. We’re both okay.”  
“Oh. Good.”  
Awkward silence.  
“I hope you’re not busy or anything…”  
“No I’m not,” Mark assured, “just housesitting for Carey. He’s on his way back from Tulsa.”  
“Tulsa?” Alex frowned, “did something happen?”  
“No, their wives just wanted to meet.”  
“Oh.”  
More silence.  
“So I actually need to tell you something,” Alex took a nervous breath, “and I think you should sit down for it.”  
A pause.  
“That bad, huh?”  
“I don’t know if it’s good or bad but I think you should know,” Alex shrugged to himself.  
“Okay. I’m sitting down then.”  
“Colin’s alive,” Alex came out with right away, unable to hold it in any longer.  
“That’s impossible,” Mark denied right away, “we were there, we all saw him go down.”  
“It’s not,” Alex insisted, “I’ve seen him. He’s here.”  
Another pause. Alex could hear him breathing heavily on the other end.  
“He’s not in great shape,” he went on, “I think he’s been in a coma ever since, but… they’re just kinda waiting for him to go one way or the other, you know?”  
“They’re waiting for him to die?” he heard the frown in Mark’s voice.  
“Or to wake up, which it doesn’t look like he’ll do,” Alex corrected, “he’s all bandaged up and he’s got tubes all over him and I mean it’s not pretty, but… the fact that he was still breathing was a shock in itself. I thought you should know, seeing as… you know. I thought you could tell Carey.”  
“Yeah I will, sure.”  
“Are you okay?” Alex’s brow furrowed.  
“Fine,” Mark insisted, “I’m fine. But I do have to go. I’ll talk to you later.”  
“Okay,” Alex chewed on his lip, “bye Mark.”  
The call ended and he hung the receiver back up. He paused a moment to wonder if he’d done the right thing before heading for the cafeteria.

Mark threw the Bluetooth earpiece into the passenger seat of his car and closed his eyes. The images of Colin grabbing the gun, of the desperation in his eyes, of the sheer amount of blood were still prevalent in his mind’s eye. He frowned as he tried to remember if he ever saw Colin move after the shot.  
But he couldn’t concentrate on the time between the shot and when he was tranquilised. He couldn’t tell if it was just too short of a time, or if he just couldn’t remember.  
He slammed his hands on the steering wheel and leant back in the seat. It was already nearing the one-year anniversary. Now he had to dredge this whole thing up again? The hairs on the back of his neck began to stand on end.  
His eyes opened and he checked the back seat. Seeing that it was clear (aside from some dirty clothes) he checked over his shoulder instead. He was getting the same feeling he had the day before. He felt like he was being watched.  
He couldn’t see anyone on the street, and the cars of the area all appeared empty. None looked familiar.  
“Stop being fucking paranoid,” he rubbed his face, putting it down to the weird situation he was in.  
He started the car and pulled out of the spot, trying to shrug it off. Carey would be back by morning and he’d certainly shake him out of it.

“Are we clear to talk about this now?”  
Taylor looked up from where he was unloading the dishwasher. Natalie was leaning against the counter.  
“Talk about what?” he asked.  
“About Carey,” she replied, “about how horribly awkward that whole visit was. I mean Emma was a delight but Carey…?”  
Taylor groaned a little and stood up again, placing some glasses on the counter.  
“Did something happen between you two?” she frowned.  
“Not really,” Taylor scratched his cheek, “he’s just never been a fan of mine is all.”  
“I thought Mark was the one we had to worry about?”  
“Well, they are twins.”  
“Why do they hate you?” Natalie watched him as he began to put the dishes away, “it almost sounded like they were stalking you for a while there. I mean… he cut his hair when you did? That’s weird, right?”  
“Maybe, maybe not,” Taylor shrugged, “Carey was paranoid the moment he found out it was more than just he and Mark. He had his reasons.”  
“But that’s not your fault,” Natalie frowned, “I didn’t realise it was so bad. Are they all like that?”  
“No,” Taylor insisted, closing the dishwasher, “no… just the Millers. I think Alex had some trouble with the whole Hanson thing but he doesn’t seem to hold it against me. Jesse doesn’t seem to care.”  
He paused, and his brow rose.  
“And Keandre seemed to like it.”  
“I can see there’s a whole lot more to these guys than meets the eye,” Natalie appreciated, “so who am I meeting next?”  
“Very funny,” Taylor smirked before leaving the kitchen.

Mark made his way out onto the porch when he heard Carey’s car pulling up the following morning. He smiled to himself in relief until he caught sight of Ellie in the baby seat. Then he quickly wiped the look from his face.  
He made his way down to the car to see if he could help.  
“How did it go?” he asked as Emma opened the back door.  
“Great,” she replied, “once Care shut his pie hole and let the women talk.”  
Carey groaned and rolled his eyes as he closed the driver’s door.  
“The whole trip was so you could meet Natalie, right?” Mark took the bag she handed him, “so you met her. Job done.”  
“I could have done it without the constant bitching from your brother’s end of the table,” Emma scorned.  
“I’m sure Taylor did some bitching of his own,” he watched as she carefully pulled Ellie into her arms, “what did he do to set Care off?”  
“Nothing,” Emma sighed, kicking the door closed behind them, “his kids were there. That’s all.”  
“So what were you… Care?”  
Carey visibly jumped when Mark called his name. He’d been staring off into the street.  
“Everything okay?” Mark frowned.  
“Yeah, sure,” he frowned as he looked back down the street, “I’m just tired.”  
“You should go to bed, grumpypants,” Emma shot a glance over her shoulder before taking Ellie up to the house.  
“Grumpypants,” Mark smirked to himself as he followed to hold the door for her.  
Carey sighed to himself before going to collect their bags from the trunk.

“How did it go with Keandre last night?” Taylor asked, organising breakfast one-handed while talking to Isaac on the phone.  
“Not the worst, but not the best,” he replied, doing the same thing in his own kitchen, “he’s sleeping in today. I think we gotta give him a few extra days to work things out. I know I needed them.”  
“As long as you don’t mind playing host for that time,” Taylor lifted a plate of bacon as Penny ducked under it, “and you know… making sure he keeps it in his pants in the meantime.”  
“I don’t mind the B&B but I’m not his babysitter,” Isaac insisted, pouring some juice for Monroe, “having said that, he doesn’t have a car and I don’t think he has any money. So he won’t get far.”  
“You say that now,” Taylor handed Ezra a bottle of maple syrup, “but I keep telling you he’s a wild card. We don’t really know him or what he’s capable of.”  
“Great. I’ll just add that to my growing list of nightmares. Thank you for that.”  
“You’re welcome. You haven’t left him alone with the kids, have you?”  
“Of course not,” Isaac scoffed, putting the juice away, “I’m not an idiot.”  
“Well we won’t go there,” Taylor smirked.  
“Ha ha.”  
“Tay put down the phone! You’ll see him in an hour!” Natalie scorned from the dining area.  
“Duty calls. See you at work,” Taylor sighed.  
“Sure. See you soon.”  
Taylor ended the call and left his phone on the counter before rounding up the remaining kids in the kitchen and driving them all toward the table. Isaac meanwhile made sure the boys had everything they needed before taking his seat opposite Nikki who was tending to their daughter.

“Care? We’re out of milk. Any chance you can go and grab some?” Emma asked from where she was nursing on the couch an hour or so later.  
“From where?” he appeared around the corner to the hall, looking confused.  
“The store?” she said slowly, “where we usually get it from?”  
He paused before looking at his watch.  
“You’ve got plenty of time before the basketball starts,” she assured.  
“That wasn’t… never mind,” he shrugged it off, “is there anything else we need?”  
“Some fruit would be good, some of it went bad while we were gone,” Emma considered, “but I think that’s it.”  
Carey grabbed his phone from the counter and stepped over to collect his keys from nearby. Mark groaned as Ellie started crying again.  
“I’ve got her,” Carey headed for the nursery.  
“Perks of living with a baby,” Emma was amused by Mark’s reaction.  
“Perks? More like sentence,” Mark set the magazine down and got to his feet.  
“And where are you going?” she asked, watching him head for the kitchen where they kept their keys.  
“I thought I’d go take Dad out again, he likes the car,” Mark smiled to himself, “it seems to get a response so… going to milk that for all I’m worth.”  
“That’s sweet,” Emma pulled her legs onto the couch now that he’d made room, “say hi to him for me.”  
“You know you should take Ellie there one day,” he suggested, “I know he wants to meet her.”  
“I’m sure he wouldn’t know who she was,” Emma shook her head.  
“I’m sure he would,” Mark countered, spinning the Camaro keys on his fingers, “but it’s up to you. I’ll be back later.”  
“I’ll let Care know,” Emma gave him a wave.  
Mark saluted and headed for the door, catching the sound of Carey humming from the nursery and chuckling to himself.  
He headed down to where the Camaro sat beside Carey’s SUV – neither car able to fit in the garage yet while it was still half full of moving boxes. He started it, paused to listen to the hum for a moment, and pulled out of the driveway to head on his usual morning drive route.  
As he passed on old warehouse he used to work from, his eyes lit up as he recognised one of the men standing out front. Just as he revved and was about to pull over, he heard the tell-tale whoop of a siren going off behind him.  
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” he groaned, finding somewhere further down the street to pull over.  
He pulled into an alley so that he was away from prying eyes, shut off the engine and reached for his registration papers. In a moment of minor panic he realised the papers were in Colin’s name, but he only had his own driver’s license on him.  
He didn’t have time to dwell on it before there was a tap on his window and he had to roll it down.  
“Afternoon officer,” he greeted.  
“License and registration please.”  
Mark handed them over before taking a closer look at who’d pulled him over. He held back another groan when he realised who it was.  
“Marcus Miller. It’s been a while,” he lowered his sunglasses, “this your car?”  
“Looking after it for a friend, Officer Mike,” he faked a smile.  
There was a pause before the larger officer leant over to look into the car.  
“What happened to your face, Miller?” he demanded.  
“Nothing. What happened to yours?”


	11. Chapter 11

The officer paused, then smirked.  
“This Reis fellow must be some kind of friend, letting you take his prized car out for a joyride,” he said, “why don’t you wait here while I go check the database and make sure he’s as good of a friend as he says he is?”  
“Sure thing Mike,” Mark shrugged.  
He didn’t move as the officer reached in to remove the keys. Mark simply rolled his eyes as he took them back to the squad car with him.  
He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he anxiously waited, wondering what the officer was going to come up with. He watched in the mirrors as he conversed with his partner before casually strolling back to the Camaro. Taking his eyes off him for only a second, Mark jumped when he heard a sudden crash from behind him. But the officer was soon back at the window.  
“Well it’s not coming up as stolen, yet…” he drawled, “but are you aware you got a tail light out son?”  
Mark’s teeth clenched.  
“Step out of the vehicle Marcus.”  
“Why?” he demanded, feeling his anger already getting the better of him.  
“Just step out of the car. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”  
Mark rolled his eyes before keeping his hands within view as he undid his seatbelt and opened the car door. He carefully got out before the officer closed it again and indicated for him to stand back against the car.  
“That a real Rolex too?” the officer indicated his wrist.  
“Would you know the difference?” Mark hit back.  
“Now, now. Let’s keep this civil,” he insisted as Mark rolled his eyes again, “what are you doing with this car, son?”  
“I told you, I’m looking after it for a friend,” Mark said firmly, “and I’m not your son.”  
The officer smirked again.  
“Turn around and face the vehicle.”  
“Why?” Mark demanded again.  
“Are you giving me cheek?”  
“No Sir,” Mark shook his head, “but you know very well that I know my rights, and I’ve picked up on a few more tricks since I’ve been gone.”  
“Well welcome home Mr Miller,” he faked a smile just the same, “now turn around.”  
Mark sighed and turned to rest his hands on the car. When he heard the officer going for his hand cuffs he flinched.  
“What the fuck are you doing?!”  
“Stay there Miller.”  
“You can’t arrest me, I haven’t done anything!”  
“Are you resisting arrest there Miller?” he taunted as he snapped the cuff closed on his right wrist.  
“Don’t you have some innocent people to go and shoot?” Mark snapped as the left one locked.  
The officer grabbed his hair and hit his head into the roof of the Camaro. Mark yelped, but in reality was more annoyed by the dent it had made than the headache he now had.  
“You say you’ve been out of town for a while?” the officer went on as if nothing had happened, “about time you came back and said hi to the boys at the station, don’t you think?”  
“Fuck you,” Mark grimaced between his teeth, before he was pulled away from the car.

“I’ll be right back,” Carey assured, throwing Emma a smile before heading out.  
He made sure the door was locked behind him before walking across to the SUV. He’d already opened the door and was about to get in when he stopped suddenly.  
A black car was standing on the verge, half of it blocking his driveway. A man was scratching his balding head as he looked over a map laid out on the hood.  
Realising he wouldn’t make it past the car in order to get out, Carey closed the door again and made his way over.  
“Excuse me!” he called out, “can I help you?”  
The man looked up in surprise before waving his hands in exasperation.  
“I don’t understand this,” he had a heavy accent, but Carey couldn’t place it, “this is supposed to be the street, no?”  
“What street are you looking for?” Carey made it to his side of the car.  
“I am looking for the corner of Pine and Maple. These trees, they’re confusing!”  
“Well you’re on Cedar, so I guess that doesn’t help,” Carey mused.  
“Can you show me where that is? I am so lost!” the man looked worried.  
Carey paused for a moment, but his willingness to help outweighed his reservations. He adjusted his beanie before making his way around the car to take a look.  
“I am here, yes?” the man pointed to a completely different part of the map to where they were.  
“No… no you’re definitely not,” Carey frowned as he concentrated, “you’re way over… here.”  
“How could I be so far away? I came off this road right here!”  
Carey frowned when he pointed to a different area altogether. He was so confused he didn’t hear the second man approaching until his footsteps were right behind him.  
“I don’t know what to tell you,” he shrugged uncomfortably, looking between them, “don’t you have a GPS?”  
“It broke,” the second man shrugged.  
His accent wasn’t as thick, but he was a lot bigger than the other guy.  
“If… this is where you’re trying to go,” Carey looked back to the map, pointing to where he’d originally indicated, “you’ll have to go back this way and get onto the interstate and head West…”  
“It’s not him,” the second man looked to the first.  
“Sorry?” Carey frowned.  
He didn’t see it coming. A sharp blow to the back of his head and he went down.

“So who is this Colin Reis fellow, and how do you supposedly know him?” the officer sounded bored as he worked on his computer.  
“Distant relative,” Mark’s impatience was coming through.  
“Is that so…?”  
“Look, how long is this going to take?” he demanded from where he sat cuffed on the chair beside the desk, “because if I’m doing an all-nighter I need to make a phone call.”  
“Don’t tell me you need to tell your boss you’re going to miss work,” the officer smirked.  
“No, I need to get the car towed,” Mark corrected pointedly, “you don’t just leave a ’15 Camaro on the side of the road in that part of town! I mean what the fuck?!”  
“Hey! Cut the attitude!” the officer pointed a finger at his face, “you’re going to sit here and wait until I contact the owner and make sure you _haven’t_ stolen his ride. Then, if you’re lucky, and he says it’s okay, you might even walk out of here tonight.”  
Mark rolled his eyes and looked across to the department’s holding cell. He’d spent a lot of time in there in the past, and the riff raff occupying it already was nothing new to him.  
“What the…?”  
Mark’s eyes shot back to the officer, seeing his face twist in confusion as he looked at the screen.  
“What?” Mark frowned.  
“Hey Price! Come look at this!” he called over a colleague.  
Mark watched as the younger officer joined him, before he gave Mark an odd look. It took a moment for Mark to realise what must have happened.  
“Crap,” he muttered to himself.  
“Looks like a case of identity fraud to me,” Price’s hands went to his belt.  
“How long have you been pretending to be this… Reis?” the other demanded.  
“Oh come on!” Mark scoffed, “you know me, you know I couldn’t pull that off!”  
“Can you contact this guy, if he’s real?” Price pointed to the screen.  
“Tried a couple times. No answer at his home.”  
“This is bullshit,” Mark sat back in the chair.  
“Was it Carey?” the officer gave him a quizzical look, “is Carey pretending to be Reis?”  
“No one is pretending to be Reis!” Mark insisted, “Carey’s at home with his wife and kid. He’s got better things to do than fuck around in Chicago!”  
“How did you know he was in Chicago?” Price asked, “we didn’t tell you that.”  
“Because I got the car from him, fuckwit,” Mark scorned.  
“He says Reis gave him the car and he just hasn’t had time to transfer the papers yet,” the other officer drawled.  
“Yeah, that’ll teach me for trying to do it the legal way,” Mark muttered.  
“You might want to take that phone call now,” he looked across at him, “you’re going to need a lawyer. A good one.”  
Mark grunted to himself at that, already hoping Carey could find their old one.

Carey jolted, seeing nothing but black. At first he thought there was something over his eyes but it didn’t take long to work out that he was in a very small space…  
He squeezed his eyes shut with a groan as he forced himself to stay calm. The moment he moved he could feel the restrictions. There was rope around his wrists binding them in a hogtie to his ankles, and there was tape across his mouth.  
He was obviously in a car trunk. Probably the car he’d seen before being knocked out. But the car wasn’t moving. He worried momentarily that it might still be parked in front of the house before realising there was no traffic noise coming from outside. Just distant footsteps and the same accents he remembered from before. At first he couldn’t hear what they were saying, but they were getting closer.  
“It has to be Colin Reis. We never found the body. There was never a death registered with the state,” he heard one of them saying.  
“It’s not Colin. He didn’t recognise us.”  
“He could have lost his memory. What if he’s been hiding in LA this whole time?”  
“What, with a wife and kid?”  
“Maybe they’re Miller’s.”  
He heard the key going into the trunk and his breath started coming in gasps. He didn’t know what to expect. The only thing he knew for sure was that Morris wasn’t behind this.  
The trunk lifted and he squinted up at the light. One of them leant over him and used a knife to cut the rope connecting his wrists to his ankles before Carey grunted as he was grabbed by the shoulders.  
The man pulled him from the trunk and he landed hard on his bound ankles. Once the trunk closed he was pushed back so he could lean against it. But he wasn’t going anywhere.  
“See?” the larger man kept hold of his shirt, “no recognition. Nothing.”  
The shorter one was fiddling with a cell phone, and Carey quickly recognised it as his.  
“He has Colin’s number in here,” he murmured, “unless it’s a decoy.”  
Carey tried twisting his wrists in an effort to loosen the ropes, but a jolt from the man holding his shoulder stopped him. He looked to the right when he heard a third set of footsteps.  
“It’s not a decoy. This is not Colin Reis.”  
Carey felt a chill run down his spine and his face pale when D’Angelo Russo stepped across in front of him. The shorter man reached up to take hold of his chin, looking into his face with interest.  
“So if you are not Colin Reis, and you are not Marcus Miller…” he frowned, “…just who might you be?”


End file.
